Comparison of serum PCT and CRP levels in patients infected by different pathogenic microorganisms: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To avoid the abuse and misuse of antibiotics, procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) have been used as new approaches to identify different types of infection. Multiple databases were adopted to search relevant studies, and the articles that satisfied the inclusion criteria were included. Meta-analyses were conducted with Review Manager 5.0, and to estimate the quality of each article, risk of bias was assessed. Eight articles satisfied the inclusion criteria. The concentrations of both PCT and CRP in patients with bacterial infection were higher than those with non-bacterial infection. Both PCT and CRP levels in patients with G− bacterial infection were higher than in those with G+ bacterial infection and fungus infection. In the G+ bacterial infection group, a higher concentration of CRP was observed compared with fungus infection group, while the difference of PCT between G+ bacterial infection and fungus infection was not significant. Our study suggested that both PCT and CRP are helpful to a certain extent in detecting pneumonia caused by different types of infection.