Table 1.
Patient characteristics. Patient cohort of adults (n = 93) presenting with fever to the emergency department
| All, n = 93 n (%)/median (IQR) |
Bacterial infection, n = 68 n (%)/median (IQR) |
No bacterial infection, n = 25 n (%)/median (IQR) |
p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 56 (36–72) | 62 (43.5–73.5) | 36 (28–53.8) | <0.001 |
| Sex, male | 55 (59.1) | 40 (58.8) | 16 (64.0) | NS |
| Duration of fever before inclusion (days) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–1) | NS |
| Clinical signs | ||||
| Temperature (°C) | 39.0 (38.8–39.8) | 39.3 (38.9–39.8) | 39.0 (38.7–39.5) | NS |
| Tachypnoea | 20 (21.5) | 16 (25.4) | 2 (8.0) | <0.01 |
| Tachycardia | 57 (61.3) | 43 (68.2) | 14 (56.0) | NS |
| Mean arterial blood pressure (mmHg) | 110 (97–127) | 111 (98–127) | 107 (97–125) | NS |
| Laboratory values | ||||
| CRP (mg %) | 12.1 (2.6–21.9) | 15.3 (6.2–25.3) | 2.8 (1.0–6.8) | <0.001 |
| Leukocytes (giga/L) | 11.4 (6.9–18.3) | 13.1 (8.1–19.0) | 9.0 (5.0–12.3) | NS |
| PCT (ng/mL) | 0.96 (0.21–5.16) | 1.91 (0.32–8.73) | 0.19 (0.12–0.66) | <0.001 |
| Outcome | ||||
| Mortality | 12 (12.9) | 11 (17.5) | 1 (4.0) | <0.001 |
| Hospitalisation | 66 (71.0) | 49 (77.8) | 18 (72.0) | NS |
| Duration of hospital stay (days) | 9 (4–15) | 7 (1–13) | 4 (0–7) | 0.01 |