Title: Meta-analysis of procalcitonin for sepsis detection
Abstract: We read with great interest Benjamin Tang and colleagues' meta-analysis regarding the accuracy of biomarker procalcitonin for sepsis diagnosis. 1 Tang BM Eslick GD Craig JC McLean AS Accuracy of procalcitonin for sepsis diagnosis in critically ill patients: systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2007; 7: 210-217 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (683) Google Scholar Tang and colleagues argued that they did not include investigations that estimated the accuracy of procalcitonin towards the clinical condition septic shock “since these conditions were usually recognised by simple clinical criteria”. This statement is correct, but ironically it also applies to the condition Tang and colleagues mainly investigate in the meta-analysis—namely sepsis. Although not always of great clinical use regarding treatment of the causative agent, sepsis criteria (in the most used form as systemic inflammatory response syndrome [SIRS] plus evidence of localised infection) are very easy to apply, and it does not appear relevant to focus on identifying additional expensive biomarkers for sepsis diagnosis alone. Meta-analysis of procalcitonin for sepsis detection – Authors' replyWe thank the comments from Beat Müller and colleagues, Jens Ulrik Jensen and colleagues, and Konrad Reinhart and Frank Brunkhorst. Full-Text PDF
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-08-01
Language: en
Type: letter
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 10
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