Does serum alpha interferon measurement aid in the etiological diagnosis of febrile adult patients?
| Autor: | Pierre Hausfater, Julien Haroche, Pascale Bonnet, Flore Rozenberg, Bruno Riou, Gaëlle Juillien |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty Fever medicine.drug_class Antibiotics Alpha interferon Fever of Unknown Origin Virus Predictive Value of Tests Virology Internal medicine medicine Humans Prospective Studies Prospective cohort study Interferon alfa business.industry Interferon-alpha Bacterial Infections Emergency department Infectious Diseases Virus Diseases Predictive value of tests Multivariate Analysis Immunology Etiology Emergency Service Hospital business medicine.drug |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Medical Virology. 79:935-938 |
| ISSN: | 1096-9071 0146-6615 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/jmv.20921 |
| Popis: | In febrile patients, distinguishing bacterial from viral infections is crucial for early treatment initiation and rational use of antibiotics. Raised interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) levels in serum has been associated with a wide range of viral infections. We evaluated the effectiveness of IFN-alpha serum measurements for the etiological diagnosis of febrile patients. Adult patients who were attending the emergency department with body temperature above or equal to 38.5 degrees C were studied prospectively, followed-up until day 30, and classified by two independent experts (blind for IFN-alpha results) as having a bacterial/parasitic infection, viral infection, or other diagnosis. The results of IFN-alpha measurements in blood samples taken in the emergency room, were compared with expert diagnosis. Among 243 patients included, 167 had bacterial/parasitic infections (including 19 with viral co-infection), 59 had viral infections, and 36 other diagnoses. IFN-alpha assay had a sensitivity of 0.44 and a specificity of 0.92 for the diagnosis of viral infection. Among the 20 patients with acute viral infection according to the emergency physician diagnosis, 7 (35%) were given antibiotics, including four patients with raised IFN-alpha concentrations. It is concluded that in febrile patients, raised serum IFN-alpha level is highly specific of the viral etiology of fever but poorly sensitive. Reliable viral and bacterial biological markers are needed in order to improve rational use of antibiotics. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Plný text