Abstract:

Objective To investigate the roles of serum amyloid-A（SAA） and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein（hs-CRP） for the early diagnosis of infectious diseases in children. Methods A total of 184 inpatient children were enrolled. Totally,80 cases were confirmed as viral infection（viral infection group）,and 104 cases were diagnosed as bacterial infection（bacterial infection group）. A total of 120 children were enrolled as control group. SAA and hs-CRP levels and white blood cell（WBC） count were determined,and the diagnostic efficiency for infectious diseases in children was analyzed. Results Serum hs-CRP level in bacterial infection group [11.50（6.25,15.00）mg/L] was higher than those in viral infection group [7.00（5.25,17.50）mg/L] and control group [2.25（1.25,4.00）mg/L]. The level of SAA in viral infection group [39.50（22.50,58.00）mg/L] was higher than those in bacterial infection group [24.50（14.25,26.50）mg/L] and control group [4.00（1.50,6.50）mg/L]（P<0.05）. The maximum diagnostic efficiency was obtained,when serum hs-CRP cut-off value was 10 mg/L,with a sensitivity of 76.25%,a specificity of 56.73%,a Youden index of 0.330 and an area under receiver operating characteristic（ROC） curve of 0.52. The maximum diagnostic efficiency was obtained,when SAA cut-off value was 22.5 mg/L,with a sensitivity of 83.75%,a specificity of 66.35%,a Youden index of 0.501 and an area under ROC curve of 0.64. Conclusions SAA level has better diagnostic efficiency than serum hs-CRP level for the early diagnosis of infectious diseases in children,which deserves clinical application and promotion.

Key words: Serum amyloid-A, High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, Viral infection, Diagnosis, Early period