BV score differentiates viral from bacterial-viral co-infection in adenovirus PCR positive children

Adenovirus causes acute respiratory illness that can mimic bacterial infection, making it challenging to differentiate adenoviral infection from adenoviral-bacterial co-infection. A host-protein score (BV score) for differentiating bacterial from viral infection that combines the expression levels of TNF-related apoptosis-induced ligand, interferon gamma-induced protein-10, and C-reactive protein exhibited a negative predictive value (NPV) of 98% in prior studies. Here we evaluate BV score's diagnostic accuracy in pediatrics with adenovirus PCR detection.

This is a sub-analysis of children aged 3 months to 20 years with adenovirus PCR-positive infection recruited prospectively in two previous cohort studies. Reference standard diagnosis (bacterial, viral or indeterminate) was based on expert adjudication. BV score ranges from 0 to 100 and provides three results based on predefined cutoffs: viral or other non-bacterial etiology (0 ≤ score < 35), equivocal (35 ≤ score ≤ 65), and bacterial or co-infection (65 < score ≤ 100). Experts were blinded to BV results.

Out of 1,779 children, 142 had an adenovirus PCR-positive nasopharyngeal swab. Median age was 1.2 years (interquartile range 0.6-1.8), 50.7% were male and 52.8% were hospitalized. 12 cases were reference standard bacterial, 115 reference standard viral and 15 were indeterminate. BV score attained sensitivity of 100.0% (no false negatives), specificity of 89.5% (95% confidence interval: 83.2-95.8), and NPV of 100.0% (92.6-100.0). Equivocal rate was 19.7%.

BV score accurately differentiated between adenoviral and bacterial-adenoviral co-infection in this cohort of children with PCR-positive adenovirus detection. This performance supports a potential to improve appropriate antibiotic use.