Abstract

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Biomarkers are increasingly being used to distinguish bacterial pneumonia from other causes, to help reduce the duration of antibiotic therapy, and to assess the prognosis of CAP and thereby aiming to complement Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) and other scores. Aims &
Objective: To compare prognostic utility of procalcitonin (PCT) with existing biomarkers [C-reactive protein (CRP) and total leukocyte count (TLC)] and clinical risk scores (PSI and CURB-65).
Materials and Methods: Fifty patients diagnosed with CAP were included in this study. Baseline serum PCT was measured, which was then stratified according to four predetermined tiers (tier I: < 0.001), PSI (p < 0.001), and CURB-65 (p = 0.028). Conclusion: Findings in our study showed that the management of severe CAP would be greatly improved if it were possible to identify, early in the course of disease, those patients who are most likely to develop complications and are at the risk of