ArticlePloS one2011
PCR improves diagnostic yield from lung aspiration in Malawian children with radiologically confirmed pneumonia.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guidelines for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition: a systematic review of the evidence for antimicrobial therapy.Paediatrics and international child health · 2018Pooled it
- Aetiologies, neuroradiological features, and risk factors for mortality and long-term neurosequelae of febrile coma in Malawian children: a prospective cohort study.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Article
- Human bocavirus-1 infections in Australian children aged < 2 years: a birth cohort study.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2023Article
- The threat of multidrug-resistant/extensively drug-resistant Gram-negative respiratory infections: another pandemic.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2022Article
- The Etiology of Pneumonia From Analysis of Lung Aspirate and Pleural Fluid Samples: Findings From the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) Study.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2021Article
- TB Antigen-Stimulated CXCR3 Ligand Assay for Diagnosis of Tuberculous Lymphadenitis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Bacterial Aetiologies of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections among Adults in Yaoundé, Cameroon.BioMed research international · 2019Article
- Soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 as a useful biomarker for diagnosing ventilator-associated pneumonia after congenital cardiac surgery in children.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2019Article
- Etiology of Childhood Pneumonia: What We Know, and What We Need to Know! : Based on 5th Dr. IC Verma Excellence Oration Award.Indian journal of pediatrics · 2018Review
- Prevalence of Human Bocavirus in Africa and Other Developing Countries between 2005 and 2016: A Potential Emerging Viral Pathogen for Diarrhea.Journal of tropical medicine · 2018Review
- The Enduring Challenge of Determining Pneumonia Etiology in Children: Considerations for Future Research Priorities.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2017Article
- Acute respiratory infection and bacteraemia as causes of non-malarial febrile illness in African children: a narrative review.Pneumonia (Nathan Qld.) · 2015Article
- Article
- Etiology of severe childhood pneumonia in the Gambia, West Africa, determined by conventional and molecular microbiological analyses of lung and pleural aspirate samples.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2014Article
- The role of multiplex PCR test in identification of bacterial pathogens in lower respiratory tract infections.Pakistan journal of medical sciences · 2014Article
- Epidemiology, etiology, x-ray features, importance of co-infections and clinical features of viral pneumonia in developing countries.Expert review of anti-infective therapy · 2014Review
- Article
- Pulmonary tuberculosis in severely-malnourished or HIV-infected children with pneumonia: a review.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2013Review
- Human bocavirus: lessons learned to date.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2013Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAccurate data on childhood pneumonia aetiology are essential especially from regions where mortality is high, in order to inform case-management guidelines and the potential of prevention strategies such as bacterial conjugate vaccines. Yield from blood culture is low, but lung aspirate culture provides a higher diagnostic yield. We aimed to determine if diagnostic yield could be increased further by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of bacteria (Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae b) and viruses in lung aspirate fluid.
methodsA total of 95 children with radiological focal, lobar or segmental consolidation had lung aspirate performed and sent for bacterial culture and for PCR for detection of bacteria, viruses and Pneumocystis jirovecii. In children with a pneumococcal aetiology, pneumococcal bacterial loads were calculated in blood and lung aspirate fluid.
resultsBlood culture identified a bacterial pathogen in only 8 patients (8%). With the addition of PCR on lung aspirate samples, causative pathogens (bacterial, viral, pneumocystis) were identified singly or as co-infections in 59 children (62%). The commonest bacterial organism was S.pneumoniae (41%), followed by H. influenzae b (6%), and the commonest virus identified was adenovirus (16%), followed by human bocavirus (HBoV) (4%), either as single or co-infection.
conclusionsIn a select group of African children, lung aspirate PCR significantly improves diagnostic yield. Our study confirms a major role of S.pneumoniae and viruses in the aetiology of childhood pneumonia in Africa.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.