ArticleKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2026
Synovial interleukin-6 point-of-care testing, alone and combined with D-dimer, supports rapid diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection.
Article in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeData on the reliability of point-of-care (POC) tests for the rapid diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infections (PJI) using synovial fluid (SF) D-dimer (DD), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (PCT) are limited. This study aimed to address this issue by evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of POC tests for SF DD, IL-6 and PCT in comparison to standard laboratory devices for diagnosing PJI.
methodsA total of 273 patients who underwent 300 revision arthroplasties were included in this study. According to the European Bone and Joint Infection criteria, 123 were classified as infected, 145 as aseptic revisions and 32 as likely infected. SF DD, IL-6 and PCT levels were quantified using both POC and standard laboratory tests. The diagnostic accuracy was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curve (AUC).
resultsAmong POC tests, IL-6 demonstrated the highest AUC 0.83 (95% confidence interval CI 0.77-0.89), followed by DD (0.66, 95% CI 0.59-0.72), while PCT performed poorly (AUC 0.26, 95% CI 0.20-0.33). Laboratory-based IL-6 test outperformed all other markers (AUC 0.94, 95% CI 0.90-0.97). When using both POC and standard laboratory methods, significant differences were noted for IL-6 and DD (p < 0.001). Combining the POC test results for IL-6 and DD showed better diagnostic performance than either alone (AUC 0.92). In patients with PJI, biomarker levels differed by pathogen virulence, except for POC IL-6 (p = 0.631), POC DD (p = 0.080) and laboratory DD (p = 0.053).
conclusionsPOC tests for SF, particularly those for IL-6, support the rapid PJI diagnosis, and combining POC IL‑6 with DD further improves diagnostic accuracy. These findings suggest that POC IL-6, either independently or in conjunction with DD, could be useful in situations where rapid decisions are required. However, its inferior performance compared to that of laboratory assays highlights the need for further optimisation and validation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, development of diagnostic criteria in a consecutive series of patients and a universally applied 'gold' standard.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.