Researchers reviewed 19 previous studies involving over 6,300 critically ill adult patients with sepsis. They wanted to see if using specific blood tests to guide when doctors stop antibiotics is safe and effective. The tests measure proteins called procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP), which can indicate when an infection is improving.
For the procalcitonin-guided approach, the analysis found it probably reduced the average duration of antibiotic therapy by about 2 days compared to standard care. The data also suggested a possible small reduction in the risk of death, though this finding was less certain. The review did not report specific information on safety concerns like infection recurrence.
The main reason for caution is that the evidence was much weaker for the other test, C-reactive protein. The certainty of evidence for CRP-guided protocols was rated as very low to low, meaning we cannot draw clear conclusions about its effectiveness yet. Readers should understand that while PCT-guided protocols show promise for helping manage antibiotics in sepsis, this is based on combining many different studies, and more research is needed, especially for the CRP test.