Procalcitonin levels as a predictor of antibiotic treatment in pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis
Katie D. Dolak, Samuel Davila, Perrin C. White · 2026
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Description
Katie D. Dolak, Samuel Davila and Perrin C. White ask in 2026 whether a blood marker called procalcitonin helps decide on antibiotics for children in diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous diabetes complication where infection can be hard to spot.
Charts from two children's hospitals for 2019 to 2023 yielded 116 admissions with marker levels, and 32 received a full antibiotic course. The marker alone showed no predictive value for suspected infection. Fever combined with another marker, C-reactive protein, predicted much better, while adding procalcitonin brought no gain. The negative result is useful, since it argues against routine ordering of that test in this situation.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Katie D. Dolak, Samuel Davila, Perrin C. White |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30647 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |