Case study 1 – resolution
In this final step, we will examine the patient’s response in the days following her operation. On day 4 post-operation there were signs of respiratory compromise, with an increased respiratory …
Course: Procalcitonin: PCT as a Biomarker for Antimicrobial Stewardship
What is sepsis?
In this video, Helen Pardoe discusses the definition of sepsis and why it is important that we understand what sepsis is. Part of the difficulty is that the definition of …
End of course summary
Congratulations on completing this course on procalcitonin as a biomarker for antimicrobial stewardship! On completion of this course, you should be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of how PCT use …
End of week summary
Well done for completing the third week of this course. We hope you have enjoyed this course. This week we covered the recent COVID-19 pandemic, how diagnostics were used during …
Summarising the link between AMS and PCT
Dr Kordo Saeed discusses the impact of PCT on antimicrobial stewardship in clinical practice. Multi-drug resistance organisms pose a major threat to global health and this can be linked to …
Case Study on the Benefits of Procalcitonin in COVID-19 Treatment
We will now examine a second case study relating to COVID-19 – this time focusing on respiratory infections. Background The patient was a 58-year-old female, with a medical history that …
How can we address these limitations?
In this video, Dr Marie Parsons and Helen Pardoe have a conversation about the limitations of PCT use. One limitation of the use of PCT may be the cost for …
Case Study on the Challenges of COVID-19 Diagnostics
The emergence of COVID-19 has presented new clinical challenges, and we will now present two case studies that highlight the challenges in diagnosing infection. Background The patient was a 62-year-old …
End of week 2 summary
Congratulations on reaching the end of week 2. We hope you have found the course enjoyable and informative so far. This week you have studied two different cases on the …
Summary of the benefits and challenges
Most patients treated with sepsis are outside the intensive therapy unit (ITU). In the UK, PCT levels are recommended to be taken in the Emergency Department. This allows an early …
Case study 2 – PCT outside of the ICU
Now we will introduce a second case study, this time focusing on the use of procalcitonin outside of the ICU. First, we will examine the introduction to the case, the …
Controversies and limitations of PCT
In this video, Dr Kordo Saeed discusses the barriers and limitations of PCT. Several barriers may prevent PCT from being used as a stewardship tool such as availability, cost and …
Welcome to week 2
Welcome to the second week of this course on procalcitonin and its use as a diagnostic. Last week, we discussed diagnostics, in particular procalcitonin, and the benefits they have. We …
End of week 1 summary
We hope you enjoyed the first week of this course on procalcitonin as a biomarker for antimicrobial stewardship. This week you have learnt about procalcitonin and other diagnostics. You have …
How does AMS link to PCT?
The concept of procalcitonin-guided antimicrobial stewardship was first tested in Emergency Department (ED) patients with infection of the lower respiratory tract. As PCT remains low (undetected) in viral infection and …
These articles are from the online course:
Procalcitonin: PCT as a Biomarker for Antimicrobial Stewardship