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Correspondence
Analytical accuracy and user-friendliness of the Afinion point-of-care CRP test
  1. Jan Y Verbakel1,
  2. Bert Aertgeerts1,
  3. Marieke Lemiengre2,
  4. An De Sutter2,
  5. Dominique M A Bullens3,4,
  6. Frank Buntinx1,5
  1. 1 Department of General Practice, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  2. 2 Department of Family Practice and Primary Health Care, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
  3. 3 Clinical Department of Paediatrics, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  4. 4 Pediatric Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  5. 5 Research Institute Caphri, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jan Verbakel, Kapucijnenvoer 33 Bldg J PBO 7001, Leuven 3000, Belgium; jan.verbakel{at}med.kuleuven.be

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Introduction

In children it is often essential to recognise serious infections at an early stage to reduce possible life-threatening complications.

C reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase protein, secreted in response to any infection or inflammation.1 Venous blood sampling can be difficult in children in ambulatory care. A point-of-care (POC) test, provided at the bedside, presents an immediate result from a droplet of blood and is especially useful in children.

Previous generations of POC CRP tests have shown good correlation with standard laboratory tests in studies in primary care and emergency departments.1–3 Measuring CRP could contribute to clinical decision-making in diagnosing serious infection.4

We determined the analytical accuracy (closeness of the agreement between the measurement results and a true value) and user-friendliness of the Afinion CRP test (on the Afinion AS100 Analyzer, Alere, USA), in children and adults.

Methods

To assess analytical accuracy, we performed POC CRP tests in children (aged 1 month–18 years) admitted to an inpatient paediatric unit or attending an outpatient paediatric clinic, and in adults (aged 18–65 years) attending a general practice surgery. User-friendliness was evaluated by the participating general practitioners.

This study was approved by the ethical review board of the KU Leuven, under reference ML8239.

Afinion CRP test

The Afinion CRP Test Cartridge consists of a 1.5 µL glass capillary and a reagent container. The result is available within 4 min and the measuring range for CRP is 5–200 mg/L. One physician (JYV) performed all POC CRP tests in children, executing every finger stick in a similar fashion (lateral side of …

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests DMAB is a recipient of a senior clinical investigator fellowship from the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) Flanders.

  • Ethics approval Ethical Review Board of the KU Leuven, Belgium.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.