Studies of children presenting to the ED with fever without source
| Post-test probability*/% | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reference | No. | Age/m | Pretest probability/% | Test | Threshold | + | − | Sensitivity | Specificity | AUC | Assay (FAS ng/ml) |
| Galetto-Lacour et al17(2001) | 124 | 0–36 | 23 | PCT | 0.9 | 56 | 2.6 | 93 | 78 | - | ILMA (0.3) |
| CRP | 40 | 52 | 4.2 | 89 | 75 | - | |||||
| Galetto-Lacour et al18 | 99 | 0–36 | 29 | PCT | 0.5 | 60 | 3.7 | 93 | 74 | - | PCT-Q (SQ) |
| CRP | 40 | 60 | 9.6 | 79 | 79 | - | |||||
| Carrol et al19 | 108 | 1–192 | 59† | PCT | 2 | 89 | 2.2 | 94 | 93 | 0.96 | ILMA (0.3) |
| CRP | 30 | 81 | 11 | 81 | 89 | 0.90 | |||||
| Fernandez-Lopez et al20 | 445 | 1–36 | 43 | PCT | 0.59 | 91 | 6.5 | 91 | 94 | 0.95 | ILMA (0.3) |
| CRP | 27.5 | 70 | 18 | 78 | 75 | 0.81 | |||||
| Andreola et al21 | 408 | 0–36 | 23 | PCT | 0.8 | 59 | 9.7 | 69 | 85 | 0.82 | ILMA (0.3) |
| CRP | 32 | 50 | 5.9 | 84 | 75 | 0.85 | |||||
| Maniaci et al22 | 234 | 0–3 | 18 | PCT | 0.12 | 22 | 4.0 | 95 | 26 | 0.76 | IFA (0.06) |
| CRP | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | |||||
↵* The post-test probability of serious bacterial infection following a ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ test as defined by the assigned threshold.
↵† Children referred with suspected meningococcal disease.
AUC, area under the (receiver operating characteristic) curve; CRP, C-reactive protein; ED, emergency department; FAS, functional assay sensitivity; IFA, immunofluorescent assay; ILMA, immunoluminometric assay; NA, not applicable; PCT, procalcitonin.