Procalcitonin as an indicator of bacterial infection and co-infection in adult patients with Covid-19

Abstract

Infections are a frequent reason for consultation in health services and sometimes, due to their severity, they are related as bacterial, viral and fungal, which represents a health problem, even more so with the current Covid-19 pandemic. People infected by this virus tend to get complicated if it is not detected in time and in turn present untimely infections that symbolize an important economic cost and the well-being of the affected people. For this reason, procalcitonin has been classified as a proven infection marker for the early detection of complications of this pathology. The objective of this research work was to analyze procalcitonin as an indicator of infection and bacterial co-infection in adult patients with Covid-19. it was carried out under the documentary design modality, its approach was to collect updated information from different scientific and bibliographic sources, the applied methodology was descriptive with an explanatory level documentary design, the review of articles and documents of the last 5 years (2017-2022) investigated in Google Scholar, PubMed, Scielo, Medicina Intensiva, Medline, Elsevier, whose information was analyzed and presented for the contribution of knowledge of the procalcitonin analyte and its importance in contributing to health personnel as an early diagnosis of First line and targeted treatment for infectious diseases infectious diseases and the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, demonstrating an association of high concentrations of the analyte procalcitonin as a biomarker of disease severity.