Point-of-care procalcitonin test to reduce antibiotic exposure in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of COPD.

ABSTRACT:

Background

This study was conducted to investigate whether point-of-care (POC) procalcitonin (PCT) measurement can reduce redundant antibiotic treatment in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).

Methods

One-hundred and twenty adult patients admitted with AECOPD were enrolled in this open-label randomized trial. Patients were allocated to either the POC PCT-guided intervention arm (n=62) or the control arm, in which antibiotic therapy followed local guidelines (n=58).

Results

The median duration of antibiotic exposure was 3.5 (interquartile range [IQR] 0-10) days in the PCT-arm vs 8.5 (IQR 1-11) days in the control arm (P=0.0169, Wilcoxon) for the intention-to-treat population. The proportion of patients using antibiotics for ≥5 days within the

SUBMITTER: Corti C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4922826 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature