Abstract:Background: Antibiotic overuse leading to increasing antibiotic resistance has been a growing concern. Patients presenting with acute respiratory tract infections (RTI) are often started empirically on antibiotics and continued for days, unless confirmatory results are reported by microbiological testing. Procalcitonin is a serum inflammatory marker that increases in bacterial infections and is utilized as an adjunct to help differentiate viral versus bacterial pneumonia. Procalcitonin-guided management is ass… Show more
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