Table 3.
Viral Yield in the Study Population and the Contribution of Different Methods to the Determination of Etiology with Respect to Their Different Specificity
| Pathogen | No. (%) patients with positive findings (n = 184) | Nasopharyngeal secretion culture (n = 157) | Serology (n = 131) | PCR from nasopharyngeal secretion sample (n = 156) |
| Influenza virus | 14 (8) | 3 | 7 | 4 |
| Rhinovirus | 12 (7) | … | … | 12 |
| Respiratory syncytial virus | 7 (4) | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Parainfluenza virus | 7 (4) | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Coronavirus | 4 (2) | … | … | 4 |
| Metapneumovirus | 4 (2) | 1 | … | 3 |
| Adenovirus | 3 (2) | … | 3 | |
| Herpes simplex 1 virus | 2 (1) | 2 | … | … |
| Enterovirus | 1 (0.5) | … | … | 1 |
| Total | 54 (29) | 8 | 20 | 26 |
NOTE. Date are no. of patients who received a diagnosis by use of a particular method, unless otherwise indicated. Additional patients received a diagnosis by use of different methods; for example, an additional 7 cases of influenza virus were diagnosed by serology that were not diagnosed by virus isolation, and another 4 cases were diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from nasopharyngeal secretion samples that were not diagnosed by virus isolation or serology.