Procalcitonin in Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Procalcitonin (PCT) has been increasingly evaluated as a biomarker in clinical situations where it is important to distinguish bacterial infection from viral and other inflammatory conditions. When added to other clinical and laboratory markers, PCT has comparably high sensitivity but markedly better specificity for detecting invasive bacterial infections in febrile young infants than decision algorithms not including PCT. For febrile infants, evidence shows PCT reduces unnecesary lumbar punctures (LPs), hospitalizations, and antibiotic use. PCT has also been documented to accurately distinguish between acute pyelonephritis and cystitis. Implementation strategies have succeeded in incorporating PCT into clinical care.