A total analysis of data from 4,200 patients with acute respiratory tract infections has shown that appointing therapy under the control of procalcitonin levels will reduce the frequency of prescribing antibiotics.

The meta-analysis included all patients with respiratory infections who participated in 14 randomized trials, the purpose of which was to assess the possibility of using procalcitonin levels as an indication for prescribing antibiotics at various stages of medical care.. This approach has proven to be very effective for the treatment of all types of respiratory tract infections (infectious exacerbation of COPD, bronchitis, ventilator-associated pneumonia) both in the outpatient setting and in hospitals, including intensive care units and intensive care units.

Procalcitonin levels increase with bacterial infections, but remain relatively low with viral and non-specific inflammatory diseases, which allows it to be used to determine the indications for antibiotic therapy.

A total of 118 deaths were recorded in 2,085 patients in the procalcitonin determination group (5.7%), compared to 134 cases in 2,126 patients in the control group (6.3%).

The number of treatment failures practically did not differ between the groups (19.1% versus 21.9%), however, after corrections, the risk of treatment failure was 18% lower in the group in which the procalcitonin has been determined. In fact, the number of therapeutic failures was lower in patients in the intensive care unit and intensive care unit with pneumonia, which allows us to consider this indicator as an additional criterion of border security, taking into account the fact that the negative consequences of excessive use of antibiotics can be avoided.

In addition, the total duration of antibiotic therapy for each patient was significantly shorter in the procalcitonin group, with an average duration of 4 days versus 8 days. After corrections, the reduction in the duration of treatment was 3.47 days.

Researchers note that additional qualitative research is needed among patients in the intensive care unit and the intensive care unit. The researchers also emphasize the need for doctors to observe certain rules for prescribing antibiotics to prevent the selection of multidrug-resistant strains.

Thus, the researchers concluded that the inclusion of measures to measure procalcitonin levels in the therapeutic algorithm could potentially improve the quality of antibiotic therapy for acute respiratory infections, which is essential for clinical medicine and public health..