Simple Blood Test Determines Who Needs Antibiotics

Boston (DbTechNo) – A new blood test has been developed which will allow doctors to determine which patients could benefit from antibiotics and those who would not.

The test, say researchers could lead to fewer cases of antibiotic resistance, and will most definitely result in fewer people receiving the drugs to treat a wide array of medical conditions.

The study was performed by Swiss researchers, and featured more than 1200 participants.

All participants had gone to ERs with lower respiratory tract infections, and some were treated with antibiotics others not.

A blood test was performed to look for the presence of infection, whether viral or not, to determine which patients could benefit from the drugs.

Depending on the level of serum procalcitonin in the blood of patients, they either received antibiotics or standard care.

The study can be found in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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