Message for the clinic: what is the ‘take-home’ message for the
clinician?
While CT can be the gold standard method to obtain important findings in
the presence of appropriate indications, it can also have negative
results in terms of patient and cost-effectiveness when used incorrectly
and inappropriately. We found that the most important risk factors
affecting the presence of infection in CT were age, presence of
comorbidity, and PCT positivity. The presence of one or more of the
identified risk factors can assist clinicians in deciding on the use of
CT in patients with acute fever without clinical clues.