Procalcitonin—An Enigmatic Anxiolytic Biomarker

1

Procalcitonin has modest sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing bacterial infections from other diseases.
2

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of procalcitonin primarily assess its role in guiding antibiotic therapy rather than its diagnostic accuracy.
3

Meta-analyses show that procalcitonin results can lead to significant reductions in antibiotic use and lower patient mortality.
4

A negative procalcitonin result is clinically impactful, whether it is a true or false negative, in guiding antibiotic therapy.
5

Procalcitonin testing is not helpful for determining whether to prolong antibiotic treatment when levels are elevated.