TY - JOUR T1 - BET 3: <strong>In well-appearing children suspected of meningococcal disease can procalcitonin reduce the need for empiric antibiotic treatment?</strong> JF - Emergency Medicine Journal JO - Emerg Med J SP - 515 LP - 515 DO - 10.1136/emermed-2013-202697.3 VL - 30 IS - 6 A2 - , Y1 - 2013/06/01 UR - http://emj.bmj.com/content/30/6/515.abstract N2 - Report by: David Herd, CED FellowSearch checked by: Katie Cole Grimes, Specialty RegistrarInstitution: Starship Children's Hospital (Auckland, NZ), Manchester Royal Infirmary (UK) A short-cut review of the literature was carried out to establish whether the biological marker procalcitonin could safely rule out the diagnosis of meningococcal disease (MCD) in children. Using the below outlined search method and after the exclusion of the non-relevant papers, two were found to be relevant to the specific question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these are shown in table 3. The clinical bottom line is that the currently available … ER -