If you follow this blog, you’ve probably read various critiques of the use of procalcitonin to guide antibiotic prescribing. Procalcitonin, a non-specific inflammatory marker, provides a small amount of informational value regarding the underlying etiology of infection, but my underlying criticism of its envisioned use is:
- The baseline rate of antibiotic prescribing is so poor, and the likelihood of poor outcomes so low, a safe reduction in prescribing is guaranteed.
- It provides about the same area-under-the-curve for predicting bacterial etiologies as C-reactive protein.
- The pro-procalcitonin studies and contributions are effectively covered in the fingerprints of the manufacturers of the assay.
So, then, replace the above complaints with – well, mostly just the top one, because here we are with CRP doing the same things for which procalcitonin is advertised, and the apparent conflict-of-interest is turned down a few notches.
In this study, 86 primary care clinics in England and Wales randomized patients with a diagnosis of COPD and a clinical diagnosis of an acute exacerbation to use of point-of-care CRP testing versus usual care. Similar to those studies seen with procalcitonin, prescribers were provided guidance with respect to various CRP levels and recommendations for either prescribing, possible prescribing, or do not prescribe. The primary outcome and secondary outcomes were associated with receipt of any antibiotics, quality of life, and adverse health outcomes.
Over the course of two years, 649 patients were randomized to the two arms, with a handful of each failing to properly undergo initial study procedures. The prescribing rate at the index visit in the “usual care” group: 69.7%. The prescribing rate with CRP: 47.7%. A winner is CRP!
Except that 76% of patients had CRP less than the threshold at which antibiotics were recommended. Another 12% were in the “antibiotics maybe” group. Thus, nearly 90% of the entire cohort were suspected of having no or limited benefit to antibiotics – so, of course any safety margin to deprescribing would be satisfied. And, considering the baseline rate of prescribing was 70%, again, there is basically no possible way a stewardship intervention could fail.
The editorial accompanying this article is darkly amusing, stating “the findings from this study are compelling enough to support CRP testing as an adjunctive measure to guide antibiotic use in patients with acute exacerbations of COPD”. However, it also goes on to note these data hardly identify “which patients (if any) truly benefit from antibiotic therapy”(emphasis mine). Some trials testing 100% antibiotic prescribing vs. zero prescribing (e.g., placebo) have found minimal, or no, benefit. As with procalcitonin, our problem is a pervasive culture of over-prescribing, and ultimate answer is the same for CRP: we don’t need to introduce a marginally informative test into this low-stakes patient population, we simply need to snap out of our collective insanity.
“C-Reactive Protein Testing to Guide Antibiotic Prescribing for COPD Exacerbations”
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1803185