A blood test can determine whether a fever is caused by bacteria, viruses or an inflammatory disease using changes in gene activity.
About for fever don鈥檛 receive a diagnosis. Current diagnostic tools, which look for pathogens, are slow and sometimes unreliable, says at Imperial College London. Genetic tests are a promising alternative as certain genes switch on or off in response to disease.
Kaforou and her colleagues gene expression in blood samples from 1212 children who were between a few weeks to 18 years old. All had been diagnosed with one of 18 infectious or inflammatory diseases that cause fever.
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The researchers used a machine learning model to analyse this data, and identified 161 genes that correlate with diseases across six categories: bacterial infections, viral infections, inflammatory diseases, malaria, tuberculosis or Kawasaki disease. The researchers validated the model in a separate group of 411 children with fever, and assessed it using a statistical measure that estimates accuracy on a scale of 0 to 1. Across the disease categories, the team found that the model had a score of 0.89 to 1 鈥� generally, indicates excellent accuracy.
The finding could speed up diagnoses, ensure appropriate treatment and reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, which contributes to antibiotic resistance, says Kaforou.
鈥淭his is a meaningful step in the right direction for precision medicine in infectious and inflammatory diseases in children,鈥� says at Duke University in North Carolina. However, validation in larger data sets is necessary before it can be used in clinical settings, he says.
鈥淥bviously, this is not a full list of every single infectious and inflammatory disease out there,鈥� says聽 Kaforou. 鈥淎t the moment, we are recruiting more patients and generating more data to identify a signature that covers even more infectious and inflammation conditions.鈥�
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