Near-Patient Test for C-Reactive Protein in General Practice: Assessment of Clinical, Organizational, And Economic Outcomes (Test Utilization and Outcomes) (Clinical Report‪)‬

C-reactive protein (CRP) [3] is an acute phase protein widely used for the diagnosis and follow-up of infectious diseases in hospitals (1-4). In general practice, CRP is found valuable in the diagnosis of bacterial diseases and in the differentiation between bacterial and viral infections (5-7). Often the diagnostic value of CRP is found superior to that of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (7-9) and superior or equal to that of the white blood cell count (WBC) (5, 8, 9). In Denmark, general practitioners (GPs) request CRP by mailing blood samples to hospital laboratories, and the test is ordered for 34% of all patients having a blood sample mailed (10). Several near-patient tests for CRP measurements are available commercially. We have evaluated one of these tests (NycoCard[R] CRP) and found it reliable and robust for the use in general practice (11). In questionnaire surveys, it has been proposed that knowing the CRP value while having the patient in the office may give GPs better guidance for the prescription of antibiotics than ESR (12,13).