Table 2. Rate of Misdiagnosis by Site of Infection in the 1477 Study Patients.
| Site of infection at ED | Misdiagnosed sites (n = 171), No./total No. (%) | No. of infections by site of infection at discharge | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Respiratory | Urogenital | Abdominal | Skin and soft tissue | Bone and joint | Intravascular | CNS | Othera | No infection | Unidentified | ||
| Respiratory | 46/657 (7.0) | 611 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 15b | 7 |
| Urogenital | 43/336 (12.8) | 9 | 293 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5c | 8 |
| Abdominal | 30/203 (14.8) | 4 | 10 | 173 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8d | 4 |
| Skin and soft tissue | 10/145 (6.9) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 135 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1e | 0 |
| Bone and joint | 12/38 (31.6) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10f | 0 |
| Intravascular | 14/30 (46.7) | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 4g | 3 |
| CNS | 8/21 (38.1) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 1h | 0 |
| Othera | 8/47 (17.0) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 2i | 1 |
Abbreviations: CNS, central nervous system; ED, emergency department.
Other sites of infection (eg, ear, nose, and throat) and viral infection.
Pulmonary embolism (n = 2), congestive heart failure (n = 2), carcinoma (n = 2), chemical pneumonia (n = 1), neutropenic fever after chemotherapy (n = 1), fever after radiation therapy (n = 1), absorption fever attributable to hematoma (n = 1), pleural effusion (n = 1), nitrofurantoin-induced acute pulmonary toxicity (n = 1), lytic rib lesion (n = 1), symptoms after thoracic endovascular aortic repair (n = 1), and unexplained syncope (n = 1).
Terminal heart failure (n = 1), metastatic malignancy (n = 1), delirium (n = 1), terminal kidney insufficiency (n = 1), and dehydration (n = 1).
Hepatic encephalopathy (n = 1), silent jaundice (n = 1), hepatic lymphoma (n = 1), inflammatory bowel disease (n = 1), fever after immunotherapy (n = 1), benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (n = 1), ileus (n = 1), and ischemic colitis (n = 1).
Lymphoma (n = 1).
Arthrosis (n = 2), muscle complaints (n = 2), tophaceous gout (n = 2), calcium pyrophosphate deposition arthritis (n = 2), psoriatic arthritis (n = 1), and osteoarthritis (n = 1).
Disseminated intravascular coagulation in metastatic malignancy (n = 1), portal vein thrombosis (n = 1), mitral valve vegetation without clinical symptoms (n = 1), and suspected endocarditis with negative blood culture.
Hepatic encephalopathy (n = 1).
Febrile neutropenia in acute myeloblastic leukemia (n = 1) and metastatic malignant neoplasm (n = 1).