Table 3.
Pearson’s correlation coefficient of the correlations between end of therapy Brucella antibody titers with different outcome variables (n = 63)
| Variable | R with Brucella melitensis antibody titer (P value) | R with Brucella abortus antibody titer (P value) |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical cure | − 0.29 (0.03)a | − 0.28 (0.03)a |
| Mortality | −0.35 (0.79) | 0.11 (0.39) |
| Length of stay | −0.26 (0.14) | − 0.27 (0.14) |
| Duration of therapy | −0.11 (0.42) | − 0.06 (0.68) |
| EOT temperature | 0.01 (0.96) | 0.01 (0.96) |
| EOT white blood cells count | −0.27 (0.06) | −0.43 (0.002)b |
| EOT C-reactive protein | −0.17 (0.29) | −0.14 (0.39) |
| EOT erythrocyte sedimentation rate | 0.17 (0.34) | 0.03 (0.88) |
EOT End of therapy
a This result indicates that lower antibody titers correlate with clinical cure; however, the results should be carefully interpreted given the small R2 values
b This result indicates that the higher the antibody titers, the lower the white blood cells count. This result may not sound clinically reasonable given the correlation with clinical cure. However, the explanation behind this phenomenon is unknown