Infection or not infection, that is the question—Is procalcitonin the answer?

[摘要] Two ongoing challenges in managing patients with a potential or real infection arehow to distinguish early on between bacterial infection and sterile infl ammation orsepsis syndrome and how to determine the optimal duration of antibiotic therapy.Both have implications for the patient—ie, starting appropriate antibiotic or alternative therapy early and avoiding adverse effects of unnecessarily prolonged antibioticuse—but also for society, particularly by limiting unnecessary antibiotic use, whichcontributes to the worldwide problem of antibiotic resistance.

[学科分类] 卫生学