Plasma procalcitonin levels in children with adenovirus infection
- 1Department of Paediatrics, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
- 2Department of Virology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Correspondence to Varpu Elenius, Department of Paediatrics, Turku University Hospital, Box 52, 20521 Turku, Finland; varpu.elenius{at}utu.fi
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Contributors VE, VP and OR designed the study and collected data. VE and OR wrote the manuscript. MY and MW analysed the data.
- Received 9 November 2011
- Accepted 28 November 2011
- Published Online First 21 December 2011
The clinical picture of adenovirus infection in children is variable including fever, cough, tonsillitis, keratoconjuctivitis, acute otitis media, febrile convulsions and gastroenteritis. In contrast to other respiratory viruses, half of the children with adenovirus infection have elevated total white blood cell counts (WBC) and serum C reactive protein (CRP) levels making it difficult to differentiate this viral infection from a bacterial one.1 2 Plasma procalcitonin (PCT) increases within 4–6 h after initiation of bacterial infection.3 The normal level of PCT in non-infected persons is under 0.05 ng/ml, and an increase to 0.5 ng/ml …
