Are Procalcitonin Measures a Reliable Predictor of Stopping Antibiotics Among Patients With Sepsis?

To the Editor The Biomarker-Guided Duration of Antibiotic Treatment in Hospitalised Patients With Suspected Sepsis (ADAPT-Sepsis) trial, which compared biomarker-guided antibiotic duration vs standard care in critically ill patients with sepsis, found that a procalcitonin (PCT) protocol decreased antibiotic duration (mean difference, 0.88 days; 95% CI, 0.19 to 1.58) but increased mortality (absolute difference, 1.57; 95% CI, −2.18 to 5.32). The authors, likely relying on the 95% CI for mortality being less than their 5.4% noninferiority margin, concluded, “Care guided by measurement of PCT reduces antibiotic duration safely compared with standard care.”