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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Tom Hellyer, Dr Iain McCullagh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2022 by the authors.Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although COVID-19 is a viral illness, many patients admitted to hospital are prescribed antibiotics, based on concerns that COVID-19 patients may experience secondary bacterial infections, and the assumption that they may respond well to antibiotic therapy. This has led to an increase in antibiotic use for some hospitalised patients at a time when accumulating antibiotic resistance is a major global threat to health. Procalcitonin (PCT) is an inflammatory marker measured in blood samples and widely recommended to help diagnose bacterial infections and guide antibiotic treatment. The PEACH study will compare patient outcomes from English and Welsh hospitals that used PCT testing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with those from hospitals not using PCT. It will help to determine whether, and how, PCT testing should be used in the NHS in future waves of COVID-19 to protect patients from antibiotic overuse. PEACH is a retrospective observational cohort study using patient-level clinical data from acute hospital Trusts and Health Boards in England and Wales. The primary objective is to measure the difference in antibiotic use between COVID-19 patients who did or did not have PCT testing at the time of diagnosis. Secondary objectives include measuring differences in length of stay, mortality, intensive care unit admission, and resistant bacterial infections between these groups.
Author(s): Euden J, Pallmann P, Grozeva D, Albur M, Bond SE, Brookes-Howell L, Dark P, Hellyer T, Hopkins S, Howard P, Llewelyn MJ, Maboshe W, McCullagh IJ, Ogden M, Parsons H, Partridge D, Powell N, Shaw D, Shinkins B, Szakmany T, Todd S, Thomas-Jones E, West RM, Carrol ED, Sandoe JAT
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Methods and Protocols
Year: 2022
Volume: 5
Issue: 6
Print publication date: 01/12/2022
Online publication date: 28/11/2022
Acceptance date: 24/11/2022
Date deposited: 12/01/2023
ISSN (electronic): MDPI AG
Publisher: MDPI
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/mps5060095
DOI: 10.3390/mps5060095
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