Background: Prompt differentiation of viral from bacterial infections in febrile children is pivotal in reducing antibiotic overuse. Myxovirus resistance protein A (MxA) is a promising viral biomarker.
Methods: We evaluated the accuracy of a point-of-care (POC) measurement for blood MxA level compared to the reference enzyme immunoassay in 228 febrile children aged between 4 weeks and 16 years, enrolled primarily at the emergency department (ED). Furthermore, we analyzed the ability of MxA to differentiate viral from bacterial infections.
Results: The mean difference between POC and reference MxA level was -76 µg/L (95% limits of agreement from -409 to 257 µg/L). Using a cutoff of 200 µg/L, POC results were uniform with the reference assay in 199 (87.3%) children. In ED-collected samples, the median POC MxA level was 571 (interquartile range [IQR], 240-955) µg/L in children with viral infections, 555 (IQR, 103-889) µg/L in children with viral-bacterial coinfections, and 25 (IQR, 25-54) µg/L in children with bacterial infections (P < .001). MxA cutoff of 101 µg/L differentiated between viral and bacterial infections with 92% sensitivity and 91% specificity.
Conclusions: POC MxA measurement demonstrated acceptable analytical accuracy compared to the reference method, and good diagnostic accuracy as a biomarker for viral infections.
Keywords: children; myxovirus resistance protein A; point-of-care test; respiratory tract infection; viral infection.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.