Procalcitonin Results Do Not Decrease Antibiotic Use in ED Patients with Suspected Lower Respiratory Tract Infection

The large multicenter, randomized ProACT trial investigated whether providing clinicians with procalcitonin levels and guidelines for their use would change antibiotic use or incidence of adverse events in emergency department (ED) patients with suspected lower respiratory tract infections. In the intervention arm, procalcitonin results were provided to ED clinicians within 1 hour of randomization, and for admitted patients, were provided serially to hospital clinicians.

Of 1656 patients, 782 (47.2%) were admitted and 984 (59.4%) received antibiotics. There were no significant differences between the procalcitonin and control groups in use of antibiotics within 30 days (mean, 4.2 and 4.3 days) or incidence of adverse events (11.7% and 13.1%)…