{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]],"date-time":"2026-02-02T20:22:30Z","timestamp":1770063750356,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,20]],"date-time":"2021-09-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1632096000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Biomarkers, especially CRP, have demonstrated their relevance to differentiate viral from bacterial infection, even though a reliable threshold is far to being found. In low- and middle-income countries, affordable and user-friendly rapid diagnostic tests based on biomarkers can be widely adopted to help health workers in the management of non-malarial fever. The primary objective of this study is to assess the best CRP cut-off to distinguish viral from bacterial infections. Other biomarkers were evaluated for the same purpose, alone or in combination with CRP. We retrospectively collected data from two referral hospital departments for infectious and tropical diseases in Italy. Areas under the ROC curve (AUC) were calculated and then compared using the DeLong test. Overall, we included 1193 febrile cases (viral 20.74% vs. bacterial 79.25%). We also collected malaria (n = 202) and intestinal parasite (n = 186) cases to establish their impact on biomarkers. CRP had the best accuracy in differentiating viral from bacterial infections. The best performance of CRP was a cut-off of 11 mg\/L. All other biomarkers studied had significantly lower accuracy. Median CRP values were within the normal ranges in parasitic infections, while they were higher in malaria. None of the combinations of CRP with other biomarkers significantly increased the accuracy of CRP alone.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics11091728","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,21]],"date-time":"2021-09-21T08:04:23Z","timestamp":1632211463000},"page":"1728","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["C-Reactive Protein for the Early Assessment of Non-Malarial Febrile Patients: A Retrospective Diagnostic Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4175-1620","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giulia","family":"Bertoli","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4561-3447","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristina","family":"Mazzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Niccol\u00f2","family":"Ronzoni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2852-2287","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ronaldo","family":"Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5377-7118","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michele","family":"Spinicci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departiment di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Firenze, 50121 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Pozzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departiment di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Firenze, 50121 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pietro","family":"Sponga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departiment di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Firenze, 50121 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Aiello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departiment di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Firenze, 50121 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tamara","family":"Ursini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9758-1523","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessandro","family":"Bartoloni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departiment di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Firenze, 50121 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Piero","family":"Olliaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"FIND (Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland"},{"name":"Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LG, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9530-8742","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zeno","family":"Bisoffi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Diagnostic and Public Health, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0108-6822","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dora","family":"Buonfrate","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2014). 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