Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Bone Marrow Transplantation Platform to Investigate the Role of Dendritic Cells in Graft-versus-Host Disease
Published on: March 17, 2020
Host Transcriptomics and Culture-Independent Testing for the Management of Febrile Neutropenia: Data From an
Anna Maria Peri1,2,3, Andrea S Henden4,5,6, Ricky Nelles4
1UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Background:
Managing febrile neutropenia is challenging due to the limited sensitivity of blood culture (BC) and the lack of tools differentiating infectious from non-infectious fever. T2 magnetic resonance (T2MR) is a culture-independent system detecting bacteria (T2Bacteria) and yeasts (T2Candida); SeptiCyte RAPID is a host response assay providing a likelihood of sepsis (SeptiScore).
Methods:
We conducted an observational study including bone marrow transplant patients with febrile neutropenia to assess (1) the performance of T2MR versus BC (2) the performance of SeptiScore in providing valid results and diagnosing infection compared to a retrospective clinician diagnosis.
Results:
We included 90 febrile episodes. Eleven episodes had BC growing bacteria, of which 3/11 were T2Bacteria on-panel pathogens. T2Candida identified four Candida with a turnaround time of 3.0 h (IQR 3.0-3.0), significantly shorter than BC (42.4 h, IQR 39.8-50.9, p = 0.014). A SeptiScore was obtained in 86/90 cases. Febrile episodes were classified as: infectious (21/86, 24%), probably infectious (13/86, 15%), indeterminate (excluded from analysis; 40/86, 46%), non-infectious (12/86, 14%). The AUC of SeptiScore for infectious fever was 0.84 (95% CI 0.71-0.97).
Conclusion:
Despite the short turnaround time, T2MR showed limited coverage of bloodstream pathogens. SeptiScore may help in diagnosing infectious neutropenic fever, but larger studies should clarify its clinical utility.
Related Concept Videos
Bone Marrow Sampling and Transplants
The transplant begins with high doses of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which aim to destroy...
Data Collection by Observations
An astronomer viewing the motion and brightness of stars in the sky and recording the data is an example of observational data collection. A botanist recording...
Observational Studies
There are three types of observational studies – Prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional.
Prospective Study
Prospective studies, also known as longitudinal or cohort studies, are carried out by collecting future data from groups sharing similar characteristics. One...
Model-Independent Approaches for Pharmacokinetic Data: Noncompartmental Analysis
One important characteristic of noncompartmental analyses is that drug exposure increases proportionally with increasing doses. This...
Analysis Methods of Pharmacokinetic Data: Model and Model-Independent Approaches
The model approach uses mathematical models to describe changes in drug concentration over time. Pharmacokinetic models help characterize drug behavior in patients, predict drug concentration in the body fluids, calculate optimum dosage regimens, and evaluate the risk of toxicity. However, ensuring that the model fits the experimental data accurately...
Measurement: Derived Units

