Point-of-care C-reactive protein testing in febrile children in general practice.
BACKGROUND
Point-of-care testing for C-reactive protein (CRP) may be helpful in differentiating viral from bacterial infection. Such a device should give results comparable to laboratory testing. The aim was to evaluate two point-of-care CRP tests (Nycocard and QuikRead) in febrile children in general practice, compared to a reference immunoturbidimetric assay.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was carried out of febrile children aged 3 months to 6 years presented to a general practice out-of-hours service. Children were visited at home where blood was taken for tests, within 24 h after presentation. The Nycocard test was performed at home, whereas the QuikRead and reference test were performed in the laboratory.


RESULTS
A total of 76 children were enrolled. All three CRP tests were performed in 59 children. The mean difference between the reference test and Nycocard and QuikRead was 0.6 and -6.1 mg/L, respectively. The slope of the Passing-Bablok regression was 0.95 (95% CI 0.9-1.0) and 0.83 (95% CI 0.81-0.85) for the Nycocard and QuikRead tests, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Up to a concentration of 160 mg/L, the Nycocard test correlated well with the reference test, while the QuikRead test underestimated concentrations above 60 mg/L. The Nycocard test seems a good candidate for CRP point-of-care testing in general practice.
Monteny
Miriam
M
Department of General Practice, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
ten Brinke
Marjolein H
MH
van Brakel
Jocelyn
J
de Rijke
Yolanda B
YB
Berger
Marjolein Y
MY
D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000592:standards*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis
D002097:C-Reactive Protein