PMID: 15353050Sep 9, 2004Paper

C-reactive protein measurement in general practice may lead to lower antibiotic prescribing for sinusitis

The British Journal of General Practice : the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Lars BjerrumAnders P Munck

Abstract

Symptoms of bacterial sinusitis overlap with viral sinusitis, and it is difficult to distinguish between the two conditions based only on a clinical examination. Uncertain diagnosis results in the significant overuse of antibiotics, which is considered to be one of the most important reasons for development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. A raised C-reactive protein (CRP) level is an indicator of bacterial infection and the CRP rapid test has been shown to be useful for the diagnosis of bacterial sinusitis in general practice. To examine whether general practitioners (GPs) who use the CRP rapid test in their practice have a lower antibiotic prescribing rate for sinusitis than GPs who do not use the test. Observational design. General practice in Denmark. A group of GPs registered all contacts (n = 17 792) with patients who had respiratory tract infections during a 3-week period between 1 November 2001 and 31 January 2002. GPs who used a CRP rapid test were compared with GPs who did not, and the treatment of their patients (n = 1444) with suspected sinusitis was compared. A CRP rapid test was used by 77% (n = 281) of the GPs. In the group of GPs using a CRP rapid test, the rate of antibiotic prescribing was 59% (95% conf...Continue Reading

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