A5V4d

Feverish illness in children
Table 8.3 GRADE findings for combined procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) tests
Number
of
studies
168
Number
of
children
Sensitivity
(95%
confidence
interval)
Specificity
(95%
confidence
interval)
Positive
predictive
value
(95%
confidence
interval)
Negative
predictive
value (95%
confidence
interval)
Positive
likelihood
ratio
(95%
confidence
interval)
Bacteraemia, pyelonephritis, lobar pulmonary condensation. Prevalence = 22.6%
PCT 0.9 ng/ml or CRP 40 mg/l
1
(Lacour
et al,
2001)
N = 124 96 (82 to
100)
Bacteremia. Prevalence = 3.2%
PCT ≥ 2ng/ml and/or CRP ≥ 40mg/l
1 (Guen
et al,
2007)
67 (56 to
76)
46 (33 to
58) a
98 (95 to
101) a
2.9 (2.2 to
3.9) b
Negative
likelihood
ratio
(95%
confidence
interval)
0.1 (0.0 to
0.4) b
N = 215 71.4 ±0.33 61.4±0.07 6.5 ±0.37 98.2 ±0.06 1.85 0.46 Low
CRP C-reactive protein, PCT procalcitonin
a Estimates and confidence intervals were calculated by the NCC-WCH technical team.
b Confidence intervals were calculated by the NCC-WCH technical team.
Comparison of PCT and CRP
Quality
Update
The section below provides a comparison of the reported results for PCT and CRP.
A plot of all the sensitivity and specificity points reported in the included studies is shown in Figure
2013
8.1. Based on these, the predicted receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves have been
generated for each test. However, this is only a descriptive plot and not a formal meta-analysis.
Low