Serum procalcitonin as a predictor of severity of pneumonia in under-five children: A prospective observational study

Table 3 Comparison of serum procalcitonin level as per the disease severity distribution, mean ± SD

Severity distribution as per the etiology	Serum procalcitonin levels (ng/mL)		P value
	Day 1	Day 5
Moderate	0.47 ± 0.42	0.26 ± 0.18	0.09
Bacterial	2.14 ± 0.77	1.92 ± 0.85	0.06
Viral	0.32 ± 0.17	0.41 ± 0.19	0.29
Atypical	0.31 ± 0.14	0.37 ± 0.15	0.47
Severe	2.04 ± 1.5	3.14 ± 4.1	< 0.01
Bacterial	7.38 ± 1.01	9.56 ± 3.92	< 0.01
Viral	0.45 ± 0.16	0.49 ± 0.17	0.27
Atypical	0.38 ± 0.15	0.41 ± 0.17	0.41
Very severe	4.21 ± 2.37	7.46 ± 3.62	< 0.01
Bacterial	14.86 ± 2.19	19.27 ± 3.54	< 0.01
Viral	0.54 ± 0.22	0.72 ± 0.18	0.25
Atypical	0.41 ± 0.19	0.55 ± 0.16	0.34

P < 0.05 has statistical significance.