title: Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy duration in critically ill adults.
abstract: Procalcitonin is a promising biomarker for antibiotic therapy because its levels rise and fall quickly with bacterial infections. A multidatabase literature search was reviewed with 3 primary prospective randomized control trials used in further analysis. The results indicated that a procalcitonin-guided antibiotic protocol reduces the number of days a patient has to take antibiotics while having no effect on mortality when compared with control groups. Short-term studies did not show a difference in the intensive care unit length of stay, infection relapse rate, superinfection rate, or multidrug-resistant bacteria rate between the procalcitonin-protocol and control group. Because procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy has been shown to reduce the duration of treatment with antibiotics in critically ill patients without worsening the mortality rate or other outcomes, the implementation of a procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy should be considered for patients with proven or highly suspected bacterial infections in the intensive care unit.
authors.affiliation: Caroline Walker is Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, 418 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (caroline.walker@alumni.upenn.edu).
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002116:Calcitonin / Q000097:blood*; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015415:Biomarkers; D002116:Calcitonin