Table 4.
Characteristics of each age group of patients with and without enterovirus infection
|
Newborn babies (n=118) |
Infants (n=283) |
Children (n=277) |
Interaction p value | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enterovirus-positive (n=71) | Enterovirus-negative (n=47) | p value | Enterovirus-positive (n=104) | Enterovirus-negative (n=179) | p value | Enterovirus-positive (n=163) | Enterovirus-negative (n=114) | p value | ||
| Demographics | ||||||||||
| Age | 18 days (12–24) | 21 days (14–26) | 0·037 | 51 days (40–86) | 77 days (53–261) | 0·0001 | 6·2 years (4·7–8·3) | 6·4 years (4·9–10·1) | 0·098 | .. |
| Male sex | 39 (55%) | 23 (49%) | 0·52 | 61 (59%) | 99 (55%) | 0·58 | 118 (72%) | 75 (66%) | 0·24 | .. |
| Admission characteristics | ||||||||||
| Fever without source | 36 (51%) | 34 (72%) | .. | 48 (46%) | 135 (76%) | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
| Sepsis-like disease | 8 (11%) | 9 (19%) | .. | 8 (8%) | 20 (11%) | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
| Suspected meningitis | 27 (38%) | 4 (9%) | .. | 48 (46%) | 24 (13%) | .. | 163 (100%) | 114 (100%) | .. | .. |
| Time between onset of symptoms and lumbar puncture (h) | 10 (7–22) | 12 (7–24) | 0·189 | 14 (7–26) | 19 (7–36) | 0·240 | 24 (17–48) | 29 (14–65) | 0·225 | .. |
| Time between onset of symptoms and venepuncture (h) | 12 (7–29) | 19 (7–31) | 0·197 | 17 (7–34) | 22 (7–50) | 0·103 | 24 (14–50) | 29 (17–65) | 0·195 | .. |
| Exposure to a sick contact | 34 (48%) | 10 (21%) | 0·003 | 44 (42%) | 39 (22%) | <0·0001 | 15 (9%) | 1 (1%) | 0·003 | .. |
| Clinical symptoms | ||||||||||
| Fever | 71 (100%) | 44 (94%) | 0·061 | 103 (99%) | 177 (99%) | >0·99 | 155 (95%) | 109 (96%) | 0·840 | 0·086 |
| Headache | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 148 (91%) | 92 (81%) | 0·015 | 0·719 |
| Photophobia | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 83 (51%) | 48 (42%) | 0·148 | 0·898 |
| Neck stiffness | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 134 (82%) | 82 (72%) | 0·042 | 0·382 |
| Seizures | 0 | 0 | >0·99 | 6 (6%) | 16 (9%) | 0·337 | 6 (4%) | 13 (11%) | 0·012 | 0·629 |
| Rash | 4 (6%) | 8 (17%) | 0·062 | 17 (16%) | 26 (15%) | 0·681 | 8 (5%) | 11 (10%) | 0·124 | 0·743 |
| Bulging fontanelle | 1 (2%) | 6 (9%) | 0·241 | 6 (6%) | 10 (6%) | 0·949 | 1 (1%) | 0 | 1·000 | 0·502 |
| Hypotonia | 19 (27%) | 5 (11%) | 0·033 | 20 (19%) | 29 (16%) | 0·516 | 12 (7%) | 1 (1%) | 0·012 | 0·898 |
| Tachychardia | 24 (34%) | 10 (21%) | 0·141 | 57 (55%) | 67 (37%) | 0·005 | 7 (4%) | 6 (5%) | 0·708 | 0·302 |
| Nausea or vomiting | 6 (9%) | 9 (19%) | 0·088 | 14 (14%) | 33 (18%) | 0·278 | 122 (75%) | 49 (43%) | <0·0001 | <0·0001 |
| Diarrhoea | 7 (10%) | 10 (21%) | 0·084 | 19 (18%) | 37 (21%) | 0·625 | 2 (1%) | 9 (8%) | 0·009 | 0·617 |
| Abdominal pain | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 43 (26%) | 28 (25%) | 0·733 | 0·609 |
| Rhinitis or pharyngitis | 10 (14%) | 13 (28%) | 0·068 | 32 (31%) | 83 (46%) | 0·010 | 33 (20%) | 26 (23%) | 0·608 | 0·099 |
| Irritability | 44 (62%) | 14 (30%) | 0·001 | 70 (67%) | 111 (62%) | 0·371 | 22 (14%) | 18 (16%) | 0·593 | 0·013 |
| Pallor or increased time for skin recolouring | 10 (14%) | 10 (21%) | 0·308 | 26 (25%) | 38 (21%) | 0·465 | 22 (14%) | 11 (10%) | 0·331 | 0·188 |
| Poor feeding | 20 (28%) | 16 (34%) | 0·498 | 34 (33%) | 73 (41%) | 0·176 | 34 (21%) | 27 (24%) | 0·577 | 0·624 |
| Blood characteristics | ||||||||||
| Glycaemia (mmol/L) | 4·6 (4·2–5·2) | 4·6 (4·4–5·4) | 0·487 | 5·5 (5·0–6·1) | 5·4 (4·9–6·1) | 0·640 | 5·6 (5·1–6·3) | 5·3 (4·7–6·3) | 0·677 | .. |
| White-blood-cell count (× 109 per L) | 8·8 (7·0–11·4) | 9·7 (8·2–13·8) | 0·020 | 8·8 (6·2–12·3) | 11·0 (8·4–15·5) | 0·0001 | 10·9 (8·5–13·4) | 11·6 (8·8–15·5) | 0·092 | .. |
| Polynuclear neutrophil (× 109 per L) | 4·1 (2·9–6·3) | 3·6 (2·0–4·9) | 0·066 | 3·3 (2·4–5·8) | 5·2 (2·5–7·9) | 0·010 | 8·5 (6·5–10·8) | 8·4 (5·4–12·8) | 0·947 | .. |
| Lymphocytes (× 109 per L) | 3·0 (2·1–4·5) | 4·7 (3·4–6·6) | 0·0005 | 3·8 (2·1–4·9) | 4·3 (2·8–6·2) | 0·044 | 1·4 (0·9–2·0) | 1·7 (1·1–2·7) | 0·004 | .. |
| Monocytes (× 109 per L) | 0·8 (0·7–1·2) | 1·2 (0·9–1·9) | 0·092 | 0·9 (0·6–1·4) | 1·2 (0·8–1·8) | 0·037 | 0·7 (0·5–1·0) | 0·9 (0·7–1·3) | 0·0001 | .. |
| Platelet count (× 109 per L) | 327 (250–420) | 377 (273–461) | 0·085 | 390 (309–445) | 359 (282–450) | 0·389 | 288 (245–348) | 274 (230–339) | 0·131 | .. |
| Thrombocytopenia | 4/70 (6%) | 1/47 (2%) | 0·647 | 0/0 (0%) | 3/177 (2%) | 0·302 | 1/161 (1%) | 3/113 (3%) | 0·309 | .. |
| C-reactive protein >15 mg/L | 9/71 (13%) | 15/47 (32%) | 0·011 | 21/104 (20%) | 73/179 (41%) | <0·0001 | 50/161 (31%) | 52/113 (46%) | 0·012 | .. |
| C-reactive protein (mg/L) | 8 (3–13) | 11 (3–23) | 0·171 | 8 (4–15) | 15 (5–44) | 0·0004 | 9 (4–20) | 19 (7–62) | 0·0001 | .. |
| CSF characteristics | ||||||||||
| Pleocytosis | 20/58 (35%) | 4/33 (12%) | 0·020 | 33/71 (47%) | 17/101 (17%) | <0·0001 | 139/163 (85%) | 38/112 (34%) | <0·0001 | .. |
| White-blood-cell count (per μL) | 7 (2–181) | 4 (3–14) | 0·276 | 7 (1–177) | 2 (1–4) | 0·0001 | 72 (19–218) | 2 (1–34) | 0·0001 | .. |
| Elevated protein | 17/61 (28%) | 5/36 (14%) | 0·112 | 42/73 (58%) | 27/106 (26%) | <0·0001 | 30/163 (18%) | 17/110 (16%) | 0·527 | .. |
| Protein level (g/L) | 0·7 (0·5–1·0) | 0·6 (0·5–0·7) | 0·148 | 0·5 (0·3–0·7) | 0·3 (0·2–0·5) | 0·222 | 0·3 (0·2–0·4) | 0·2 (0·2–0·3) | 0·469 | .. |
| Glucose (mmol/L) | 2·7 (2·5–3·1) | 2·9 (2·6–3·4) | 0·088 | 3·1 (2·8–3·5) | 3·3 (3·0–3·7) | 0·007 | 3·5 (3·2–3·9) | 3·6 (3·2–4·0) | 0·451 | .. |
Data are n (%) or median (IQR), unless otherwise indicated. These results were obtained from 678 patients who had samples available for enterovirus PCR testing (excluding 144 patients with bacterial or viral infections other than enterovirus infections). CSF=cerebrospinal fluid.