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- Title
Procalcitonin to reduce exposure to antibiotics and individualise treatment in hospitalised old patients with pneumonia: a randomised study.
- Authors
Gavazzi, Gaëtan; Drevet, Sabine; Debray, Matthieu; Bosson, Jean Luc; Tidadini, Fatah; Paccalin, Marc; de Wazieres, Benoit; Celarier, Thomas; Bonnefoy, Marc; Vitrat, Virginie
- Abstract
Background: Treating pneumonia in old patients remains challenging for clinicians. Moreover, bacterial antimicrobial resistance is a major public health threat. Objective: The PROPAGE study evaluated the interest of a strategy using serial measurements of procalcitonin (PCT) to reduce the duration of antibiotic therapy in old patients with pneumonia. Methods: PROPAGE took place from Dec.-2013 to Jun.-2016 in eight French geriatric units. It was a prospective, comparative, randomised, open-label study involving old patients (≥ 80 years) who had initiated antibiotic treatment for pneumonia in the previous 48 h. PCT was monitored in all patients and two decision-making PCT-based algorithms guided antibiotic therapy in patients from the PCT group. Results: 107 patients were randomised (PCT, n = 50; Control, n = 57). Antibiotic therapy exposure was reduced in the PCT group as compared to the Control group (median duration of antibiotic therapy, 8 vs. 10 days [rank-test, p = 0.001]; antibiotic persistence rates on Days 6 and 8, 54% and 44% vs. 91% and 72%) and no significant difference was found in recovery rate (84% vs. 89.5%; Pearson Chi² test, p = 0.402). Conclusion: Although, the superiority of the strategy was not tested using a composite criterion combining antibiotic therapy duration and recovery rate was not tested due to the small sample size, the present study showed that monitoring associated with PCT-guided algorithm could help shorten antibiotic treatment duration in the very old patients without detrimental effects. Measuring PCT levels between Day 4 and Day 6 could be helpful when making the decision regarding antibiotic discontinuation. Trial registration: NCT02173613. This study was first registered on 25/06/2014.
- Subjects
OLDER patients; CALCITONIN; EXPOSURE therapy; GERIATRIC care units; PNEUMONIA
- Publication
BMC Geriatrics, 2022, Vol 22, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1471-2318
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s12877-022-03658-4