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Bacterial coinfection is unusual among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but many of those patients still receive antibiotics. To determine whether procalcitonin measurement lowers antibiotic use, researchers in the Netherlands conducted this observational study of 216 hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were treated according to a procalcitonin algorithm in 2020 and 2021; procalcitonin was measured within 24 hours of admission, and antibiotics were recommended for values >0.5 ng/mL and discouraged for values <0.25 ng/mL. Outcomes for these patients were compared with those of 543 controls (hospitalized COVID-19 patients whose treatment was not guided by procalcitonin testing).
Patients in the procalcitonin group were less likely than cont…