Wolters, P.I. (2019) The association between pathogens and the severity of acute gastroenteritis in children aged 6 months to 6 years : Rotavirus infection is significantly associated with a more severe course of acute gastroenteritis. thesis, Medicine.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Abstract Background: acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children can lead to severe dehydration, but estimating the degree of dehydration and therefore predicting the course of the illness is very complicated for general practitioners (GPs). Therefore, it could be interesting for GPs to know if specific pathogens are associated with a more severe course of the AGE. Objective: to investigate if there is an association between the combination of rotavirus and/or norovirus infection and the severity of the AGE course. Methods: a prospective cohort study of children aged 6 months to 6 years presenting with AGE in a primary care out-of-hours service in Assen, Groningen or Zwolle between October 2016 and March 2018 was performed. Prevalences of pathogens were calculated and univariate logistic regression was performed for analysis of the primary outcome: a severe course of AGE, defined as a mean frequency of vomiting or diarrhoea of 3 times or more per day for a minimum of 5 days during a follow-up period of 7 days. The Ct-value, a measure for pathogen load, was measured if a specific pathogen was positive. Results: in total 75 children were included (45.3% boys (n=34), median age 1.5 years, interquartile range 0.9; 2.0 years). No significant association was found between the combination of infection with rotavirus and/or norovirus and the severity of the course of AGE (OR=1.909, 95% CI=0.590; 6.177, p=0.280). When only looking at rotavirus infection, this was significantly associated with a more severe course of AGE (OR=2.963, 95% CI=1.050; 8.363). Prevalence rates were highest for rotavirus (65.3%) infection with also having lowest Ct values. Conclusion: although the combination of rotavirus and/or norovirus infection was not significantly associated with the a severe course of AGE, rotavirus infection alone increased the risk of a serious infection. A point-of-care test for rotavirus could be helpful to detect the children with a higher chance for a severe course of the AGE. However, more research is needed to evaluate the impact of these tests
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Holtman, Dr. G.A. and Berger, Prof. Dr. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Oct 2020 12:02 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Oct 2020 12:02 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2777 |
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