Biomarkers in the critically ill patient: procalcitonin

Infection and/or sepsis biomarkers should help to make the diagnosis and thus initiate therapy earlier, help to differentiate between infectious and sterile inflammation, allow the use of more-specific antimicrobials, shorten the time of antimicrobial use, and ideally identify distinct phenotypes that may benefit from specific adjunctive sepsis therapies. Procalcitonin (PCT) was proposed as a sepsis and infection marker more than 15 years ago. Meanwhile, PCT has been evaluated in various clinical settings. In this review the present use of PCT on the ICU and in critically ill patients is summarized, included it's role for diagnosis of severe sepsis and septic shock and antibiotic stewardship with PCT.