Limited Utility of Procalcitonin in Identifying Community-Associated Bacterial Infections in Patients Presenting with Coronavirus Disease 2019.

The role of procalcitonin in identifying community-associated bacterial infections among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 is not yet established. In 2443 patients with 148 bacterial co-infections, mean procalcitonin levels were significantly higher with any bacterial infection (13.16 ± 51.19 ng/mL, p=0.0091) and with bacteremia (34.25 ± 85.01 ng/mL, p=0.0125) than without infection (2.00 ±15.26 ng/mL). Procalcitonin (cutoff 0.25 or 0.50 ng/mL) did not reliably identify bacterial co-infections, but may be useful in excluding bacterial infection.