Procalcitonin details
What Procalcitonin shows
Procalcitonin is a protein that the body produces in large amounts in response to bacterial infection, and much less so with viral infections. This blood test helps doctors judge how likely a bacterial infection is, how severe it may be, and whether antibiotics are working or can be stopped. A higher result can point to a bacterial infection or sepsis, while a low result makes a serious bacterial infection less likely. Procalcitonin can also rise after major surgery, trauma, burns or with some other conditions, and early in an infection it may not yet be raised, so it is interpreted with your symptoms and other tests.
Tests that include Procalcitonin
Used in the diagnosis of bacteremia and septicemia in adults and children (including neonates), renal involvement in urinary tract infection in children, bacterial infection in neutropenic patients, and in the diagnosis, risk stratification, and monitoring of septic shock, systemic secondary infection post-surgery, as well as in severe trauma, burns, and multiorgan failure. Differential diagnosis of bacterial versus viral meningitis. Differential diagnosis of community-acquired bacterial versus viral pneumonia. Monitoring of therapeutic response to antibacterial therapy.
- Procalcitonin Measures procalcitonin, a protein that rises sharply in bacterial infections, used to help assess serious infection and guide decisions about antibiotics.
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