Procalcitonin vs Clinical and Chest Film Findings to Diagnose Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Patients With Acute Asthma or Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Bronchitis

Affi liations: From the Department of Geriatrics (Drs Paladini and Antonelli-Incalzi), University Campus Bio-Medico; Department of Medicine (Dr Hodder), University of Ottawa; Biomedical Department of Internal and Specialized Medicine DIBIMIS (Dr Bellia), University of Palermo; Department of Critical Care Medicine and Surgery, Unit of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine (Drs Marchionni and Di Bari), University of Florence; HealthCare Research Department (Ms Cecchini), GFK Eurisko; and Department of Pneumology (Dr Pistelli), Catholic University of Rome. Financial/nonfi nancial disclosures: The authors have reported to CHEST that no potential confl icts of interest exist with any companies/organizations whose products or services may be discussed in this article . Funding/Support: This study was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Boehringer-Ingelheim GmbH and Pfi zer Inc . Correspondence to: Luciana Paladini, MD, Department of Geriatrics, University Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, Rome 00127, Italy; e-mail: l.paladini@yahoo.it © 2011 American College of Chest Physicians. Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians ( http :// www . chestpubs . org / site / misc / reprints . xhtml ). DOI: 10.1378/chest.11-1690