Bacterial or viral infection: results during consultation Measurement of C-reactive protein (CRP) is helpful in the clinical management of a patient with symptoms of infection. CRP is normally present in very low concentrations in the serum of healthy people. In bacterial infections, CRP concentrations are markedly increased. A very high CRP value is more likely in bacterial than viral infections, whereas a normal CRP value is highly unlikely in bacterial infections. By evaluating the patient’s symptoms and measuring the CRP concentration, the doctor can limit the prescription of antibiotics to those patients most likely to benefit from them. Orion Diagnostica’s QuikRead® CRP is a simple test that helps doctors distinguish bacterial infections from viral infections at the point of care, during the consultation. The doctor can perform a QuikRead CRP analysis on a fingerstick blood sample in less than three minutes, and the quantitative result, displayed in plain numbers, is just as accurate as a laboratory test. QuikRead CRP can also be used to easily monitor the efficacy of treatment. QuikRead CRP consists of the small, portable QuikRead 101 Instrument and a QuikRead CRP kit. The kit is ready-to-use and contains everything (except lancets for blood sampling) needed for the assay. The separately available QuikRead CRP Control is used for quality control of QuikRead CRP assay using QuikRead 101 Instrument.