Validation of Septic Knee Monoarthritis Prediction Rule in a Lyme Disease Endemic Area.

2021

2021 May 13

1535-1815

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>In Lyme disease endemic areas, Lyme and septic arthritis often present similarly. A published septic knee arthritis clinical prediction rule includes 2 high-risk predictors: absolute neutrophil count of 10,000 cells/mm or greater and erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 40 mm/h or greater. The objective of the study was to externally validate this prediction rule in a multicenter prospective cohort.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We enrolled a prospective cohort of children with knee monoarthritis undergoing evaluation for Lyme disease at 1 of 8 Pedi Lyme Net emergency departments located in endemic areas. We defined a case of septic arthritis with a positive synovial fluid culture or a synovial fluid white blood cell count of 50,000 or greater per high powered field with a positive blood culture and Lyme arthritis with a positive or equivocal C6 EIA, followed by a positive supplemental immunoblot. Other children were classified as having inflammatory arthritis. We report the performance of the septic arthritis clinical prediction rule in our study population.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of the 543 eligible children, 13 had septic arthritis (2.4%), 234 Lyme arthritis (43.1%), and 296 inflammatory arthritis (54.5%). Of the 457 children (84.2%) with available laboratory predictors, all children with septic arthritis were classified as high risk (sensitivity, 100%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 62.8%-100%; specificity, 68.1%; 95% CI, 63.6-73.3; negative predictive value, 278/278 [100%]; 95% CI, 98.6%-100%). Of the 303 low-risk children, 52 (17.2%) underwent diagnostic arthrocentesis.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>The septic knee arthritis clinical prediction rule accurately distinguished between septic and Lyme arthritis in an endemic area. Clinical application may reduce unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures.</p>

10.1097/PEC.0000000000002455

Pediatr Emerg Care

34160185

Validation of the Rule of 7's for Identifying Children at Low-risk for Lyme Meningitis.

2021

306-309

2021 Apr 01

1532-0987

<p><b>BACKGROUND: </b>The Rule of 7's classifies children as low-risk for Lyme meningitis with the absence of the following: ≥7 days of headache, any cranial neuritis or ≥70% cerebrospinal fluid mononuclear cells. We sought to broadly validate this clinical prediction rule in children with meningitis undergoing evaluation for Lyme disease.</p><p><b>METHODS: </b>We performed a patient-level data meta-analysis of 2 prospective and 2 retrospective cohorts of children ≤21 years of age with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis who underwent evaluation for Lyme disease. We defined a case of Lyme meningitis with a positive 2-tier serology result (positive or equivocal first-tier enzyme immunoassay followed by a positive supplemental immunoblot). We applied the Rule of 7's and report the accuracy for the identification of Lyme meningitis.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Of 721 included children with meningitis, 178 had Lyme meningitis (24.7%) and 543 had aseptic meningitis (75.3%). The pooled data from the 4 studies showed the Rule of 7's has a sensitivity of 98% [95% confidence interval (CI): 89%-100%, I2 = 71%], specificity 40% (95% CI: 30%-50%, I2 = 75%), and a negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI: 95%-100%, I2 = 55%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS: </b>The Rule of 7's accurately identified children with meningitis at low-risk for Lyme meningitis for whom clinicians should consider outpatient management while awaiting Lyme disease test results.</p>

10.1097/INF.0000000000003003

Pediatr Infect Dis J

33710975

Pediatric Lyme Disease Biobank, United States, 2015-2020.

2020

3099-3101

2020 Dec

1080-6059

<p>In 2015, we founded Pedi Lyme Net, a pediatric Lyme disease research network comprising 8 emergency departments in the United States. Of 2,497 children evaluated at 1 of these sites for Lyme disease, 515 (20.6%) were infected. This network is a unique resource for evaluating new approaches for diagnosing Lyme disease in children.</p>

10.3201/eid2612.200920

Emerg Infect Dis

33219811

The Lyme Disease Polymerase Chain Reaction Test Has Low Sensitivity.

2019

2019 Dec 10

1557-7759

<p>The Lyme PCR is a direct detection test, but has not been rigorously evaluated in children undergoing evaluation for acute Lyme disease. We performed a six-center prospective cohort study of children aged 1 to 21 years undergoing acute evaluation for Lyme disease. For this planned secondary analysis, we limited our cohort to children undergoing evaluation for Lyme disease who had any Lyme PCR test obtained by a treating clinician (blood, synovial fluid, or cerebrospinal fluid). We defined a case of Lyme disease with a positive two-tier Lyme disease serology: a positive or equivocal enzyme immunoassay followed by a positive supplemental immunoblot interpreted using standard criteria. We report the test characteristics of Lyme PCR for the diagnosis of Lyme disease. We identified 124 children of whom 54 (43.5%) had Lyme disease. Overall, 23 had a positive PCR test (sensitivity 41.8%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 29.7-55.0; specificity 100%, 95% CI: 94.2-100). All children with a positive Lyme PCR also had a positive two-tiered Lyme disease serology. The Lyme disease PCR test did not improve the diagnosis of children undergoing evaluation for acute Lyme disease. Given the additional costs of this low utility test, clinicians should not order Lyme PCR testing in the acute care setting.</p>

10.1089/vbz.2019.2547

Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis.

31821110

Diagnostic Performance of C6 Enzyme Immunoassay for Lyme Arthritis.

2019

2019 Dec 13

1098-4275

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>In Lyme disease endemic areas, initial management of children with arthritis can be challenging because diagnostic tests take several days to return results, leading to potentially unnecessary invasive procedures. Our objective was to examine the role of the C6 peptide enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test to guide initial management.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We enrolled children with acute arthritis undergoing evaluation for Lyme disease presenting to a participating Pedi Lyme Net emergency department (2015-2019) and performed a C6 EIA test. We defined Lyme arthritis with a positive or equivocal C6 EIA test result followed by a positive supplemental immunoblot result and defined septic arthritis as a positive synovial fluid culture result or a positive blood culture result with synovial fluid pleocytosis. Otherwise, children were considered to have inflammatory arthritis. We report the sensitivity and specificity of the C6 EIA for the diagnosis of Lyme arthritis.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of the 911 study patients, 211 children (23.2%) had Lyme arthritis, 11 (1.2%) had septic arthritis, and 689 (75.6%) had other inflammatory arthritis. A positive or equivocal C6 EIA result had a sensitivity of 100% (211 out of 211; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 98.2%-100%) and specificity of 94.2% (661 out of 700; 95% CI: 92.5%-95.9%) for Lyme arthritis. None of the 250 children with a positive or equivocal C6 EIA result had septic arthritis (0%; 95% CI: 0%-1.5%), although 75 children underwent diagnostic arthrocentesis and 27 underwent operative joint washout.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>In Lyme disease endemic areas, a C6 EIA result could be used to guide initial clinical decision-making, without misclassifying children with septic arthritis.</p>

10.1542/peds.2019-0593

Pediatrics

31836615

Higher C6 enzyme immunoassay index values correlate with a diagnosis of noncutaneous Lyme disease.

2019

160-164

2019 Jun

1879-0070

<p>The correlation between the Food and Drug Administration-cleared C6 enzyme immunoassay (EIA) C6 index values and a diagnosis of Lyme disease has not been examined. We used pooled patient-level data from 5 studies of adults and children with Lyme disease and control subjects who were tested with the C6 EIA. We constructed a receiver operating characteristic curve using regression clustered by study and measured the area under the curve (AUC) to examine the accuracy of the C6 index values in differentiating between patients with noncutaneous Lyme disease and control subjects. In the 4821 included patients, the C6 index value had excellent ability to distinguish between patients with noncutaneous Lyme disease and control subjects [AUC 0.99; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.99-1.00]. An index value cut point of ≥3.0 had a sensitivity of 90.9% (95% CI, 87.8-93.3) and specificity of 99.0% (95% CI, 98.6-99.2%) for Lyme disease.</p>

10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2018.12.001

Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis.

30642722

A minority of children diagnosed with Lyme disease recall a preceding tick bite.

2019

694-696

2019 Apr

1877-9603

<p>Of 1770 children undergoing emergency department evaluation for Lyme disease, 362 (20.5%) children had Lyme disease. Of those with an available tick bite history, only a minority of those with Lyme disease had a recognized tick bite (60/325; 18.5%, 95% confidence interval 14.6-23.0%). Lack of a tick bite history does not reliably exclude Lyme disease.</p>

10.1016/j.ttbdis.2019.02.015

Ticks Tick Borne Dis

30853264

Two-Tier Lyme Disease Serology Test Results Can Vary According to the Specific First-Tier Test Used.

2019

2019 Feb 22

2048-7207

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Variability in 2-tier Lyme disease test results according to the specific first-tier enzyme immunoassay (EIA) in children has not been examined rigorously. In this study, we compared paired results of clinical 2-tier Lyme disease tests to those of the C6 peptide EIA followed by supplemental immunoblotting (C6 2-tier test).</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We performed a prospective cohort study of children aged ≥1 to ≤21 years who were undergoing evaluation for Lyme disease in the emergency department at 1 of 6 centers located in regions in which Lyme disease is endemic. The clinical first-tier test and a C6 EIA were performed on the same serum sample with supplemental immunoblotting if the first-tier test result was either positive or equivocal. We compared the results of the paired clinical and C6 2-tier Lyme disease test results using the McNemar test.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of the 1714 children enrolled, we collected a research serum sample from 1584 (92.4%). The clinical 2-tier EIA result was positive in 316 (19.9%) children, and the C6 2-tier test result was positive or equivocal in 295 (18.6%) children. The clinical and C6 2-tier test results disagreed more often than they would have by chance alone (P = .002). Of the 39 children with either a positive clinical or C6 2-tier test result alone, 2 children had an erythema migrans (EM) lesion, and 29 had symptoms compatible with early disseminated Lyme disease.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Two-tier Lyme disease test results differed for a substantial number of children on the basis of the specific first-tier test used. In children for whom there is a high clinical suspicion for Lyme disease and who have an initially negative test result, clinicians should consider retesting for Lyme disease.</p>

10.1093/jpids/piy133

J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc

30793167

Positive Two-tiered Lyme Disease Serology is Uncommon in Asymptomatic Children Living in Endemic Areas of the U.S.

2018

2018 Jul 31

1532-0987

<p>Knowing the frequency of positive Lyme disease serology in children without signs of infection facilitates test interpretation. Of 315 asymptomatic children from Lyme disease endemic regions, 32 had positive or equivocal C6 enzyme linked immunoassays, but only 5 had positive IgG or IgM supplemental immunoblots (1.6%, 95% confidence interval 0.7-3.7%).</p>

10.1097/INF.0000000000002157

Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J.

30067595

Clinical Trial of Fluid Infusion Rates for Pediatric Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

2018

2275-2287

2018 06 14

1533-4406

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Diabetic ketoacidosis in children may cause brain injuries ranging from mild to severe. Whether intravenous fluids contribute to these injuries has been debated for decades.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We conducted a 13-center, randomized, controlled trial that examined the effects of the rate of administration and the sodium chloride content of intravenous fluids on neurologic outcomes in children with diabetic ketoacidosis. Children were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups in a 2-by-2 factorial design (0.9% or 0.45% sodium chloride content and rapid or slow rate of administration). The primary outcome was a decline in mental status (two consecutive Glasgow Coma Scale scores of &lt;14, on a scale ranging from 3 to 15, with lower scores indicating worse mental status) during treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis. Secondary outcomes included clinically apparent brain injury during treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis, short-term memory during treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis, and memory and IQ 2 to 6 months after recovery from diabetic ketoacidosis.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>A total of 1389 episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis were reported in 1255 children. The Glasgow Coma Scale score declined to less than 14 in 48 episodes (3.5%), and clinically apparent brain injury occurred in 12 episodes (0.9%). No significant differences among the treatment groups were observed with respect to the percentage of episodes in which the Glasgow Coma Scale score declined to below 14, the magnitude of decline in the Glasgow Coma Scale score, or the duration of time in which the Glasgow Coma Scale score was less than 14; with respect to the results of the tests of short-term memory; or with respect to the incidence of clinically apparent brain injury during treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis. Memory and IQ scores obtained after the children's recovery from diabetic ketoacidosis also did not differ significantly among the groups. Serious adverse events other than altered mental status were rare and occurred with similar frequency in all treatment groups.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Neither the rate of administration nor the sodium chloride content of intravenous fluids significantly influenced neurologic outcomes in children with diabetic ketoacidosis. (Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Health Resources and Services Administration; PECARN DKA FLUID ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00629707 .).</p>

10.1056/NEJMoa1716816

N. Engl. J. Med.

29897851