ArticleThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene2024
Does Paging Clinicians about Tick-Borne Disease Serological Results Impact Clinical Care? A Retrospective Analysis of 70 Cases in North Carolina.
Article in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Completion of Paired Serological Testing Algorithms for Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis and Ehrlichiosis, North Carolina: 2017-2020.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Contribution of Limited Molecular Testing to Low Ehrlichiosis Diagnosis in High Incidence Area, North Carolina, USA.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Delayed treatment of Rocky Mountain spotted fever is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because the diagnosis cannot be established from a single serological test, guidelines recommend empirical antibiotic initiation in suspect patients. We evaluated a policy used by UNC Health of paging clinicians when acute testing for Rickettsia returned with a titer ≥1:256. Our objective was to assess the potential effect of paging on routine treatment practices. Notably, we found that a high proportion of cases (N = 28, 40%) were not prescribed antibiotics until the results were available. The vast majority of these cases did not have evidence of compatible symptoms or disease progression. These findings suggest that paging may have prompted unnecessary treatment. Overall, the policy, which has now been discontinued, appears to have had limited benefit. Efforts are urgently needed to improve adherence to testing and treatment guidelines.
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Registered trials
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