Can Use of Viral Load Improve Norovirus Clinical Diagnosis and Disease Attribution?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the state-of-the-art diagnostic for norovirus. Cycle threshold (Ct), an indicator of viral load, may be associated with symptomatic disease as well as demographic and outbreak characteristics.

Methods

Data on (1) outbreak and sporadic cases and (2) asymptomatic controls in the United States and Latin America were analyzed. With multivariate regression models, we assessed relationships between various factors and Ct values, and we calculated odds ratios (ORs) for the presence of symptoms and attributable fractions of norovirus. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis was performed to define an optimal Ct cutoff to identify disease-causing infections.

Results

Cycle threshold values were

SUBMITTER: Shioda K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7236086 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature