Doctors would know which respiratory tract infections need prescriptions

updated 2 hours, 34 minutes ago

LONDON – If doctors used an existing simple lab test on patients with coughs or flu-like symptoms they would be better able to decide which of them might benefit from antibiotics, scientists said on Thursday.

They said prescriptions of expensive antibiotics for respiratory tract infections could be reduced by more than 40 percent if tests became more commonplace.

The German researchers found that testing for a marker of bacterial infection known as procalcitonin (PCT) helped identify patients whose respiratory tract infections would respond to antibiotics, and stopped others being offered unnecessary drugs.

Respiratory infections are very common and doctors are taught to prescribe antibiotics on the basis of features like sputum or fever, which suggest there may be bacterial infection. (more…)