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When I was in training, I was taught that Procalcitonin helped to differentiate between bacterial and viral infections. That's the reason why it was approved by the FDA and that's the reason why we use it today. I have seen other clinicians and colleagues suspect infection on a patient, order a PCT, see that it's negative, and then feel good about everything going on. On the same token, I've seen patients with an elevated PCT who are completely asymptomatic be kept in the hospital for extra days to be "observed" to see whether they will present themselves with an infection within the next 24 hours. Unfortunately, many people have not read the most recent studies where you have to tease out the fact that a negative PCT does not completely rule out infection and vice versa. This study, with a bunch of limitations within it, opened my eyes to the fact that you can have a patient with community acquired pneumonia and a negative PCT. Game changer. I no longer use it to make me feel better inside. I only use it when it's elevated in the first place and I have a confirmed bacterial infection to help me deescalate antibiotics and I also use it to help me know whether source control has been achieved.
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