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Using the kinetics of C-reactive protein response to improve the differential diagnosis between acute bacterial and viral infections
Ist Teil von
Infection, 2020-04, Vol.48 (2), p.241-248
Ort / Verlag
Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erscheinungsjahr
2020
Quelle
MEDLINE
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Purpose
Differential diagnosis between acute viral and bacterial infection is an emerging common challenge for a physician in the emergency department. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is used to support diagnosis of bacterial infection, but in patients admitted with low CRP, its ability to discriminate between viral and bacterial infections is limited. We aimed to use two consecutive CRP measurements in order to improve differential diagnosis between bacterial and viral infection.
Methods
A single-center retrospective cohort (
n
= 1629) study of adult patients admitted to the emergency department with a subsequent microbiological confirmation of either viral or bacterial infection. Trend of CRP was defined as the absolute difference between the first two measurements of CRP divided by the time between them, and we investigated the ability of this parameter to differentiate between viral and bacterial infection.
Results
In patients with relatively low initial CRP concentration (< 60 mg/L,
n
= 634 patients), where the uncertainty regarding the type of infection is the highest, the trend improved diagnosis accuracy (AUC 0.83 compared to 0.57 for the first CRP measurement). Trend values above 3.47 mg/L/h discriminated bacterial from viral infection with 93.8% specificity and 50% sensitivity.
Conclusions
The proposed approach for using the kinetics of CRP in patients whose first CRP measurement is low can assist in differential diagnosis between acute bacterial and viral infection.