id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-322868-o3r0y6bz	Williams, E. J.	Routine measurement of serum procalcitonin allows antibiotics to be safely withheld in patients admitted to hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection.	2020-07-02		.txt	text/plain	2821	129	42	We retrospectively collected 28-day outcome data on patients admitted to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK, between 5 March and 15 April 2020, with a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCT within 48 hours of diagnosis. We set out to evaluate whether PCT use had an impact on i) antibiotic usage and ii) outcomes in patients with confirmed COVID-19 at a large NHS Foundation Trust Hospital in the United Kingdom (UK). To investigate the relationship between PCT positivity and total DDD, antibiotic receipt at 48 hours post-diagnosis and meropenem prescription, linear and logistic regression models were explored adjusting for demographic confounders (age, sex, ethnicity and comorbidities). This observational study supports the hypothesis that implementation of a local guideline advising against the use of antibiotics for patients with confirmed COVID-19 and a PCT level Previous studies have demonstrated that procalcitonin-guided therapy in lower respiratory tract infections substantially reduces antibiotic use without compromising outcome [22] [23] [24] , including in the critically ill [25] .	./cache/cord-322868-o3r0y6bz.txt	./txt/cord-322868-o3r0y6bz.txt