Diagnostic Accuracy of Procalcitonin upon Emergency Department Admission during SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic
Stefano Malinverni,
Silvia Lazzaroni,
Maïa Nuňez,
Thierry Preseau,
Frédéric Cotton,
Delphine Martiny,
Fatima Bouazza,
Vincent Collot,
Deborah Konopnicki,
Stéphane Alard,
Magali Bartiaux
Affiliations
Stefano Malinverni
Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Silvia Lazzaroni
Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Maïa Nuňez
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Brugmann, Place A.Van Gehuchten 4, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1020 Brussels, Belgium
Thierry Preseau
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Brugmann, Place A.Van Gehuchten 4, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1020 Brussels, Belgium
Frédéric Cotton
Clinical Chemistry, Laboratoire Hospitalier Universitaire de Bruxelles-Universitair Laboratorium Brussel (LHUB-ULB), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Delphine Martiny
Department of Microbiology, Laboratoire Hospitalier Universitaire de Bruxelles-Universitair Laboratorium Brussel (LHUB-ULB), Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Fatima Bouazza
Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Vincent Collot
Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Deborah Konopnicki
Infectious Diseases Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Stéphane Alard
Department of Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Magali Bartiaux
Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Introduction: Procalcitonin is a marker for bacterial diseases and has been used to guide antibiotic prescription. Procalcitonin accuracy, measured at admission, in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), is unknown in the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of procalcitonin to assess the need for antibiotic treatment in patients with CAP presenting to the emergency department during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods: We performed a real-world diagnostic retrospective accuracy study of procalcitonin in patients admitted to the emergency department. Measures of diagnostic accuracy were calculated based on procalcitonin results compared to the reference standard of combined microbiological and radiological analysis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and area under (AUC) the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated in two analyses: first assessing procalcitonin ability to differentiate microbiologically proven bacteria from viral CAP and then clinically diagnosed bacterial CAP from viral CAP. Results: When using a procalcitonin threshold of 0.5 ng/mL to identify bacterial etiology within patients with CAP, we observed sensitivity and specificity of 50% and 64.1%, and 43% and 82.6%, respectively, in the two analyses. The positive and negative predictive values of a procalcitonin threshold of 0.5 ng/mL to identify patients for whom antibiotics should be advised were 46.4% and 79.7%, and 48.9% and 79% in the two analyses, respectively. The AUC for the two analyses was 0.60 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.52–0.68) and 0.62 (95% CI, 0.55–0.69). Conclusions: Procalcitonin measured upon admission during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic should not guide antibiotic treatment in patients with CAP.
