Performance of procalcitonin point-of-care tests in predicting bacterial causes of acute febrile illness in Northwest Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Antimicrobial resistance in sub-Saharan Africa is fueled by empiric antibiotic use due to the absence of diagnostic testing for bacterial infections. We aimed to assess the performance of qualitative, semiquantitative, and quantitative procalcitonin (PCT) rapid point-of-care (POCT) tests in identifying bacterial causes of fever among acute febrile patients.

Methods

A total of 181 frozen serum samples from adults (aged over 15 years) were assessed via qualitative, semiquantitative, and quantitative procalcitonin tests. The agreement between the test methods was evaluated via kappa statistics. A composite reference test was created by combining the results from all the PCT methods, due to the absence of a reliable gold standard to verify bacterial infections and the

SUBMITTER: Abebaw D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12625327 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature