A new ribonucleic acid expression-measuring blood test can help determine if a bacterial or viral infection caused fever in infants, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers examined the RNA test's efficacy by comparing it to the typical method of evaluating young infants with fever. The usual method involves culturing bacteria from blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid.
Researchers compared the RNA test results to cultures taken from 279 infants, younger than two months, with fever treated in 22 emergency departments. The study found that the test was accurate, with 66 RNA biosignatures distinguishing infants with and without bacterial infections.
"Our findings suggest that we can quickly and reliably identify whether an infant has a bacterial infection or not by analyzing RNA biosignatures, which are genomic markers of the child’s immune response," said Elizabeth Powell, MD, MPH, study co-author and emergency department physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. "A simple blood test could replace invasive procedures like a spinal tap."
The researchers will continue examining the RNA test with funding from a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health.