A novel marker procalcitonin may help stem the antibiotic overuse in emergency setting

The day the wonder drugs, antibiotics, were available for cure to humans; dramatic rise of average life expectancy has been recorded compared to past. However, disease-causing microbes that have developed resistance to antibiotics are an increasing public health problem. Recently, superbug emergence was reported in some countries including India. One of the reasons quoted was misuse of antibiotics. Clinical signs and symptoms of infection often do not point towards the etiology. The dilemma occurs as diagnosis of sepsis is difficult because of nonspecificity of clinical signs and symptoms, and frequent overlapping of symptoms with other noninfectious causes of systemic inflammation. Key for improving survival rates lies in early diagnosis and treatment. Serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels measuring in sick patients during infection may be valuable in diagnosing the conditions, and its changing levels have some prognostic value too.