Patients with lower respiratory tract infections and low procalcitonin levels treated with placebo improved at rates similar to those given azithromycin, with fewer side effects and less antibiotic exposure, a recent study showed.
“The study was prompted by a few factors — first is the overuse of antibiotics and the contribution this makes to worsening antimicrobial resistance; second is the availability of a biomarker, procalcitonin, to help discriminate bacterial from viral infection; third is that prior studies of procalcitonin showed it could safely reduce unnecessary