TABLE 4.
Influences of sex, age, clinical presentation, type of disease, presence of antibodies, antibiotic therapy, and type of biopsy specimen on the suicide PCR results for patients definitely with a rickettsiosisa
| Variable | Positive suicide PCR result (n = 70) | Negative suicide PCR result (n = 33) | Univariate analysis
|
P by multivariate analysis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | Odds ratio | ||||
| Sex ratio (no. of M/no. of F) | 1.2 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.9 (0.4-2.0)b | 0.4 |
| Mean ± SD age (yr) | 49.1 ± 17.8 | 50.3 ± 15.3 | 0.7 | 0.9 (0.7-1.2) | ND |
| Percentage of patients with: | |||||
| MSF | 42.8 | 57.6 | 0.2 | 0.5 (0.2-1.4) | 0.08 |
| ATBF | 35.7 | 27.3 | 0.4 | 1.5 (0.5-4.1) | 0.9 |
| TIBOLA | 10.0 | 15.1 | 0.4 | 0.6 (0.2-2.5) | ND |
| Infection with Rm | 7.1 | 0 | 0.1 | Infinite | NDc |
| Infection with Raes | 1.4 | 0 | 0.7 | Infinite | ND |
| Infection with AFR | 1.4 | 0 | 0.7 | Infinite | ND |
| Infection with Rsib | 1.4 | 0 | 0.7 | Infinite | ND |
| Fever | 85.7 | 75.7 | 0.2 | 1.9 (0.6-6.1) | 0.1 |
| Lymph node | 40.0 | 39.4 | 0.9 | 1.0 (0.4-2.6) | ND |
| Rash | 75.7 | 75.7 | 1.0 | 1.0 (0.3-2.9) | ND |
| Type of skin biopsy | 98.6 | 87.9 | 0.03d | 9.5 (1.1-233.7) | 0.045 |
| Delay of shipment >24 h | 25.7 | 45.4 | 0.045 | 2.4 (0.9-6.3) | 0.7 |
| Early antibiotic therapy | 7.1 | 33.3 | <10−2 | 0.1 (0.04-0.5) | <10−2 |
| Elevated transaminase levels | 61.4 | 72.7 | 0.3 | 0.6 (0.2-1.6) | 0.1 |
| Thrombocytopenia | 55.7 | 51.5 | 0.7 | 1.2 (0.5-2.9) | ND |
| Presence of antibodies | 61.2 | 54.5 | 0.9 | 1.0 (0.4-2.7) | ND |
a
Abbreviations: M, male; F, female; Rm, “R. sibirica mongolotimonae”; Raes, R. aeschlimannii; AFR, “R. conorii caspia”; Rsib, “R. sibirica sibirica”; ND, not determined.
b
The values in parentheses are 95% confidence intervals.
c
Due to colinearity, this variable was not included in the multivariate analysis.
d
Boldface data indicate P values that were <0.05.