Gbinigie OA, et al. – Researchers conducted a systematic review of 11 studies of moderate quality (n=11,034) to critically assessed biomarkers for diagnosing bacterial infections in adults aged ≥ 65 years. They identified and evaluated 51 biomarkers at differing thresholds for detecting bacterial infections. In diagnosing bacteremia in older adults, elevated procalcitonin (≥ 0.2 ng/mL) was suggested to be possibly helpful. Only the likelihood of bacteremia increases by 5% in the presence of C-reactive protein ≥ 50 mg/L. As for urinary tract infection (UTI), a positive urine may aid in diagnosis, according to findings. Elevated white blood cell count did not help in the detection of intra-abdominal infections; however, it may have clinical utility in the discrimination of bacterial infection from other acute illness. As far as the diagnosis of bacterial infections in older adults was concerned, the futility of many diagnostic tests useful in younger patients was suggested by the limited available evidence. Symptoms and signs continue to be the mainstay of diagnosis in community-based populations until further evidence from high-quality studies is obtained.