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Updated: Jun 7, 2025

An Improved and High Throughput Respiratory Syncytial Virus RSV Micro-neutralization Assay
Published on: January 26, 2019
Leveraging Real-World Evidence to Define Severe RSV Lower Respiratory Tract Disease in Adults
Catherine A Panozzo1, Edward E Walsh2, Zhen Yang3
1Infectious Disease Clinical Development, Moderna, Inc., 325 Binney Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA. Catherine.Panozzo@modernatx.com.
Introduction:
As no standard case definitions for respiratory syncytial virus-associated lower respiratory tract disease (RSV-LRTD) in adults are available, this study analyzed definitions for severe RSV-LRTD from previously published data in hospital and community cohorts of adults with RSV-associated symptoms.
Methods:
The frequency, sensitivity, and specificity of acute respiratory disease symptoms among hospitalized and community cohorts of adults with RSV were analyzed. RSV-LRTD signs/symptoms assessed included shortness of breath (dyspnea), cough and/or fever, wheezing/rales/rhonchi (abnormal lung sounds by auscultation), sputum production, tachypnea, hypoxemia, and pleuritic chest pain.
Results:
Dyspnea and tachypnea provided the best differentiation between hospitalized and community RSV-positive cases. The severe RSV-LRTD case definition yielding one of the highest and best-balanced sensitivity and specificity was dyspnea paired with either abnormal lung sounds by auscultation, hypoxemia, tachypnea, cough and/or fever, sputum, or chest pain.
Conclusions:
Dyspnea alone, and in combination with certain other lower respiratory tract disease signs/symptoms, was a leading symptomatic indicator for severe RSV outcomes. These results contribute to the harmonization of case definitions for RSV disease.
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