Table 2.
Distribution of clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with fever according to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay results
| Characteristics | Suspected cases | Controls | P-value (suspected vs. controls) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCR+ (n = 136) | PCR− (n = 544) | P-value | n = 45 | ||
| Categorical variables, N (%) | |||||
| BC positive | 91 (13.4) | 7 (1.0) | – | 0 | – |
| BC negative | 45 (6.6) | 537 (79.0) | – | 45 | – |
| Continuous variables, median [IQR] | |||||
| Age (years) | 7.5 [4.5–11] | 7.5 [4.6–14] | 0.56* | 8 [5–10] | 0.90* |
| Temperature (°C) | 39.0 [38.3–39.4] | 38.8 [38.1–39.4] | 0.89 | N/A | N/A |
| Time from fever onset to sample collection (days) | 5 [4–7] | 7 [4–11] | < 0.001* | N/A | N/A |
| Blood input for culture (mL) | 2.5 [2.0–3.4] | 2.6 [2.0–3.4] | 0.92 | 2.3 [1.8–3.3] | 0.19 |
| Blood input for PCR (mL) | 3.4 [3.2–3.7] | 3.4 [3.2–3.7] | 0.47 | 3.4 [3.2–3.6] | 0.47 |
| Time to positive BC (hours) | 17.0 [14.5–23.0] | 32.4 [24.6–36.3] | < 0.001* | N/A | N/A |
| Volume BC–volume PCR (mL) | −0.9 [−1.6 to +0.2] | −0.9 [−1.6 to 0.0] | 0.81 | −1.04 [−1.77 to 0.00] | 0.55 |
BC = blood culture.
* Fisher's exact test of independence. Significantly different (P < 0.05) categorical variables were described as number and percentage, and continuous variables as median and interquartile range [IQR]. They were compared using the Student t-test or Wilcoxon test two-way analysis of variance, as appropriate.