Procalcitonin Is Not a Reliable Biomarker of Bacterial Coinfection in People With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Undergoing Microbiological Investigation at the Time of Hospital Admission

Open Forum Infectious Diseases

Published

1 Mayo 2022

Authors

Relph KA, Russell CD, Fairfield CJ, Turtle L, de Silva TI, Siggins MK, Drake TM, Thwaites RS, Abrams S, Moore SC, Hardwick HE, Oosthuyzen W, Harrison EM, Docherty AB, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Ho A;

International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (ISARIC4C) Investigators

DOI

10.1093/ofid/ofac179

Abstract

Admission procalcitonin measurements and microbiology results were available for 1040 hospitalized adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (from 48 902 included in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium World Health Organization Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK study). Although procalcitonin was higher in bacterial coinfection, this was neither clinically significant (median [IQR], 0.33 [0.11-1.70] ng/mL vs 0.24 [0.10-0.90] ng/mL) nor diagnostically useful (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.56 [95% confidence interval, .51-.60]).

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