Pro/Con debate: Is procalcitonin useful for guiding antibiotic decision making in critically ill patients?

Abstract

You are concerned about the escalating use of antibiotics in your intensive care unit (ICU). This has put a strain on the ICU budget and is possibly resulting in the emergence of resistant bacteria. You review the situation with your team and one suggestion is to consider using biomarkers such as procalcitonin to better guide appropriate antibiotic decision making. © 2008 BioMed Central Ltd.