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INTRODUCTION:Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) may present as life-threatening infection with uncertain progression and outcome of treatment. Primary aim of the trial was determination of the cut-off value of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (PCT) above which, 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with CAP, could be predicted with high sensitivity and specificity. We investigated correlation between serum levels of IL-6 and PCT at admission and available scoring systems of CAP (pneumonia severity index-PSI, modified early warning score-MEWS and (Confusion, Urea nitrogen, respiratory rate, Blood pressure, ≥65 years of age-CURB65).METHODS:This was prospective, non-randomized trial which included 101 patients with diagnosed CAP. PSI, MEWS and CURB65 were assessed on first day of hospitalization. IL-6 and PCT were also sampled on the first day of hospitalization.RESULTS:Based on ROC curve analysis (AUC ± SE = 0.934 ± 0.035; 95%CI(0.864-1.0); P = 0.000) hospitalized CAP patients with elevated IL-6 level have 93.4% higher risk level for lethal outcome. Cut-off value of 20.2 pg/ml IL-6 shows sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 87% in mortality prediction. ROC curve analysis confirmed significant role of procalcitonin as a mortality predictor in CAP patients (AUC ± SE = 0.667 ± 0.062; 95%CI(0.546-0.789); P = 0.012). Patients with elevated PCT level have 66.7% higher risk level for lethal outcome. As a predictor of mortality at the cut-off value of 2.56 ng/ml PCT shows sensitivity of 76% and specificity of 61.8%.CONCLUSIONS:Both IL-6 and PCI are significant for prediction of 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with CAP. Serum levels of IL6 correlate with major CAP scoring systems.

Introduction Viral infections are often accompanied by reactive thrombocytosis, that is, increased activity of platelets, which is especially common in infants and children. Objective This study aimed to test the diagnostic properties of platelet indices, plateletcrit (PCT), mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW), in children with beta corona virus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection. Methods The study included 232 patients below the age of 18 admitted to the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) isolation wards at the Institute for Child and Youth Health Care of Vojvodina. PCT, MPV and PDW values on the day of admission were recorded. In total, 245 controls were selected from those treated for SARS‐CoV‐2 negative respiratory infections. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed. Results MPV and PDW were found important as independent predictors for COVID‐19 in children. Furthermore, the joint effect of MPV and PDW for predicting COVID‐19 was confirmed. The parameters showed better sensitivity than specificity. Conclusion Our study showed that PCT is not clinically significant, while MPV and PDW have diagnostic value in predicting COVID‐19 in children. In perspective, these parameters could be implemented in the various learning algorithms in order to achieve earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Background:Cardiovascular diseases are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. The increased inflammatory biomarker levels predict exacerbations and are associated with cardiovascular diseases in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients but their role in the settings of acute chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations has not been determined.Aims:To analyse the association between inflammatory biomarkers and heart failure and also to determine the predictors of mortality in patients with exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Study Design:Prospective observational study.Methods:We analysed 194 patients admitted for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at The Institute for Pulmonary Diseases of Vojvodina, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia. In all patients, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, N-terminal of the pro-hormone brain natriuretic peptide and white blood count were measured and transthoracic echocardiography was performed.Results:There were 119 men (61.3%) and the median age was 69 years (interquartile range 62-74). Left ventricular systolic dysfunction (ejection fraction <50%) was present in 47 (24.2%) subjects. Patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction had higher C-reactive protein levels (median 100 vs. 31 mg/L, p=0.001) and fibrinogen (median 5 vs. 4 g/L, p=<0.001) compared to those with preserved ejection fraction. The overall hospital mortality was 8.2% (16/178). The levels of C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and ejection fraction predicted hospital mortality in univariate analysis. After adjusting for age, hypoxemia and C-reactive protein, ejection fraction remained significant predictors of hospital mortality (OR 3.89, 95% CI 1.05-15.8).Conclusion:Nearly a quarter of patients with the exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease present with left ventricular systolic dysfunction which may be associated with mortality.

Objective Decision trees are efficient and reliable decision‐making algorithms, and medicine has reached its peak of interest in these methods during the current pandemic. Herein, we reported several decision tree algorithms for a rapid discrimination between coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in infants. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted on 77 infants: 33 infants with novel betacoronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection and 44 infants with RSV infection. In total, 23 hemogram‐based instances were used to construct the decision tree models via 10‐fold cross‐validation method. Results The Random forest model showed the highest accuracy (81.8%), while in terms of sensitivity (72.7%), specificity (88.6%), positive predictive value (82.8%), and negative predictive value (81.3%), the optimized forest model was the most superior one. Conclusion Random forest and optimized forest models might have significant clinical applications, helping to speed up decision‐making when SARS‐CoV‐2 and RSV are suspected, prior to molecular genome sequencing and/or antigen testing.