In critically ill patients with cancer, proadrenomedullin and procalcitonin both have a promising role in predicting bloodstream infections in a manner more helpful than C-reactive protein. These two biomarkers were superior to C-reactive protein in the prognostic analysis of response to antimicrobial therapy for those patients with documented infections. However, proadrenomedullin was superior to procalcitonin in predicting response in all febrile patients and was unique in showing increased levels among nonresponders.

The aim of this article was to review the role of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in acute pulmonary infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1 and tuberculosis, and to assess the risk of disease transmission with the use of NIV from patients to healthcare workers.We performed a clinical review by searching Medline and EMBASE. These databases were searched for articles on ''clinical trials'' and ''randomised controlled trials''. The keywords selected were non-invasive ventilation pulmonary infections, influenza-A (H1N1), SARS and tuberculosis. These terms were crossreferenced with the following keywords: health care workers, airborne infections, complications, intensive care unit and pandemic. The members of the International NIV Network examined the major results regarding NIV applications and SARS, H1N1 and tuberculosis. Cross-referencing mechanical ventilation with SARS yielded 76 studies, of which 10 studies involved the use of NIV and five were ultimately selected for inclusion in this review. Cross-referencing with H1N1 yielded 275 studies, of which 27 involved NIV. Of these, 22 were selected for review. Cross-referencing with tuberculosis yielded 285 studies, of which 15 involved NIV and from these seven were selected. In total 34 studies were selected for this review.NIV, when applied early in selected patients with SARS, H1N1 and acute pulmonary tuberculosis infections, can reverse respiratory failure. There are only a few reports of infectious disease transmission among healthcare workers. @ERSpublications NIV in high risk pulmonary infection management can prevent respiratory failure in ICUs with well trained staff