D’Souza S, et al. - In this prospective, observational study involving 368 children, researchers investigated biomarkers' predictive value; procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, lactate, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, and the biphasic activated partial thromboplastin time waveform in diagnosing bacterial infection following cardiac surgery. According to findings, none of the biomarkers studied differentiating between infection and postoperative inflammatory reaction within 3 days of infection. However, on day 2 postoperative procalcitonin kinetics peaked and fell sharper than C-reactive protein kinetics, which peaked on day 3 postoperative. Following cardiac surgery, monitoring of procalcitonin kinetics may help guide rational antimicrobial use.