Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy in intensive care unit patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Serum procalcitonin (PCT) concentration is used to guide antibiotic decisions in choice, timing, and duration of anti-infection therapy to avoid antibiotic overuse. Thus, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to seek evidence of different PCT-guided antimicrobial strategies for critically ill patients in terms of predefined clinical outcomes. METHODS:We searched for relevant studies in PubMed, Embase, Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library up to 25 February 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included if they reported data on any of the predefined outcomes in adult ICU patients managed with a PCT-guided algorithm or according to standard care. Results were expressed as risk ratio (RR) or mean difference (MD) with accompanying 95% confidence interval (

SUBMITTER: Huang HB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5700008 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature