Biostatistics & Study Design USMLE Step 1 Practice Question
During rounds with medical students, an attending physician examines a 33-year-old man in the intensive care unit who suffered second-degree burns over 24% of his body-surface area. One of the students asks whether checking the patient's procalcitonin levels would be useful to detect early signs of sepsis. Which of the following study designs would be most useful in determining the predictive value of procalcitonin levels for detecting sepsis in a burn patient?
Answer choices
- ACase-control study evaluating procalcitonin levels in hospitalized burn patients who developed sepsis and those who did not
- BAn animal study in which procalcitonin levels are measured in mice with and without sepsis
- CProspective cohort study of hospitalized burn patients who had their daily procalcitonin levels checked while being observed for development of sepsis
- DMeta-analysis of prospective cohort studies of hospitalized burn patients who had their daily procalcitonin levels checked while being observed for development of sepsisCorrect answer
- ECase series of 25 burn patients who developed sepsis, with graphs of daily procalcitonin levels for each patient
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