title: A comparison of eosinopenia and C-reactive protein as a marker of bloodstream infections in critically ill patients: a case control study.
abstract: Diagnosis of bloodstream infections in critically ill patients is difficult. This case control study involved a total of 22 patients with confirmed bloodstream infections and 44 concurrent controls from an intensive care unit in Western Australia. We aimed to assess whether eosinopenia and C-reactive protein are useful markers of bloodstream infections in critically ill patients. The patients with bloodstream infections had a more severe disease and a longer length of intensive care unit (10.7 vs 4.0 days, P = 0.001) and hospital stay (40.9 vs 17.9 days, P = 0.015) than the controls. Univariate analyses showed that C-reactive protein (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.847, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.721 to 0.973), eosinophil counts (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.849, 95% CI 0.738 to 0.961) and fibrinogen concentrations (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.730, 95% CI 0.578 to 0.882) were significant markers of bloodstream infections. C-reactive protein concentration was, however the only significant predictor in the multivariate analysis (odds ratio 1.21 per 10 mg/l increment, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.39, P = 0.007). C-reactive protein concentration appears to be a better marker of bloodstream infections than eosinopenia in critically ill patients. A large prospective cohort study is needed to assess whether eosinopenia is useful in addition to C-reactive protein concentrations as a marker of bloodstream infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Towler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016638:Critical Illness; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004804:Eosinophils / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012372:ROC Curve; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014904:Western Australia / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein