How Much Procalcitonin we use in Differentiation of Bacterial Pneumonia in Children?

Procalcitonin is a new generation marker used to differentiate bacterial from viral pneumonia. Although it is not a test routinely used in practice, it can be included in diagnosis and treatment algorithm of pneumonia in children. Studies have shown the effectiveness of procalcitonin in determining of duration of antibiotherapy and hospitalization, too. The test is superior to the other laboratory parameters, compared to reactive C protein, inclusively. Depending on the result of the pulmonary x-ray (bacterial pneumonia) admitted patients were included in: study group – patients with increased values of procalcitonin, and control group – patients with normal values ones. The study proposed a comparative analysis; the correlation index was used to demonstrate how laboratory parameters can interact, and the evolutionary trend of studied parameters was analysed. The results are consistent with the literature data, validating the superiority of procalcitonin in establishing the etiologic diagnosis and the treatment evaluation in bacterial pneumonia in children.