patients (17%), where one of them had a new infiltrate
on CXR. In two of the patients CRP was550 mg/L and
still the degree of suspicion was high. When looking at
the results, CXR was positive in both cases.
Linear-by-linear association was performed to the
ordinal trend for degree of suspicion and outcome
of radiography (p50.001). When looking at PPV
for the term ‘‘sure’’ this was 88% and NPV was
62%.
When CRP levels were divided into subgroups
the degree of suspicion did not differ between
CRP 520 mg/L and 20–49mg/L, nor between CRP
50–100 mg/L and4100mg/L. When CRP was520 mg/L
only 18% were prescribed antibiotics and 25% of those
cases had a positive CXR. When CRP was 20–49 mg/L,
71% were prescribed antibiotics. All of the patients
presenting with CRP4100 mg/L were prescribed antibiotics.
Of all the patients included in the study, 76%
were prescribed antibiotics