A recent retrospective study published in the ‘Nature Journal of BMC Pulmonary Medicine’, reported that Procalcitonin (PCT), C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and White Blood Cells (WBC) are effective indicators for identification of acute bacterial or no-bacterial infections in children.

The study included a total of 348 children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI), with an aim to evaluate the correlation between PCT, CRP, and WBCs and different types of ARTI including bacterial viral, and mycoplasmal infections.

The key results findings were as follows:

• The levels of PCT, CRP and WBC in children with a bacterial infection were significantly higher than those with viral and mycoplasmal infections.
• The positive rate of combined detection of PCT, CRP and WBC were significantly higher than that of single detection.
• There were no significant differences in PCT, CRP, WBC levels and diagnostic positive rates between gram positive and gram-negative bacterial infection groups.

Thus, the results of the study indicated that the levels of PCT and CRP have higher differential diagnostic value than that WBCs in infection, and combined examination of the three significantly improves the positive rate of diagnosis.