Article Text
Best evidence topic reports
BET 2: Can procalcitonin accurately diagnose serious bacterial infection in emergency department patients with SIRS?
Abstract
A shortcut review was carried out to establish whether serum procalcitonin levels can be used to identify serious bacterial infection in ED patients with undifferentiated SIRS. 14 papers presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The review concludes that raised procalcitonin levels are associated with bacteraemia; however, there are no clinical management studies addressing this question in ED patients with SIRS.
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Footnotes
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.