All consecutive patients with lower respiratory tract infection are potentially eligible for this trial

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Procalcitonin guided antibiotic therapy and hospitalization in patients with lower respiratory tract infections: a prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/7/102</p><p>BMC Health Services Research 2007;7():102-102.</p><p>Published online 5 Jul 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1947969.</p><p></p> If all inclusion criteria are fulfilled and no exclusion criteria are present, the physician has to explain to the patient the trial, ask for participation and get informed consent. After inclusion, the patient is randomized by a web based computerized random allocation algorithm to either the guidelines group or the PCT group, respectively. denotes community-acquired pneumonia, acute exacerbation of chronic pulmonary disease, antibiotics, procalcitonin