The predictive value of influenza symptomatology in elderly people

Abstract

It is recommended that the criteria of the Sentinel Stations in The Netherlands and the ICHPPC-2 be adapted in the following way: influenza is likely if, out of the entire complex of symptoms, at least fever, coughing and an acute onset occur.

Is Influenza an Influenza-Like Illness? Clinical Presentation of Influenza in Hospitalized Patients

“…In outpatient studies, many recruitment strategies involve evaluating patients when they report ILI symptoms, such as fever and respiratory symptoms. [2][3][4][5][6] Not surprisingly, these studies observed high rates of fever and respiratory symptoms. Several reports have documented shortcomings of the definition of ILI in long-term care facilities, specifically because many patients did not have documented fever.…”

“…The difficulties of identifying influenza virus infection on the basis of clinical characteristics have been well described for outpatients, [2][3][4][5][6][7] patients in the emergency department, 8,9 and residents of nursing homes. 10 There are fewer recent data regarding the clinical presentation of hospitalized patients with influenza.…”

Increased emergency department chief complaints of fever identified the influenza (H1N1) pandemic before outpatient symptom surveillance

“…A study in England of spatiotemporal analyses of telehealth data found that fever calls for 5-14-year-old children provided a timely and unique description of the evolution of a national influenza outbreak in England [12]. In studies comparing those with and without positive cultures for influenza virus, fever has been shown repeatedly to have better differentiating ability in comparison with other symptoms or combination of symptoms [18][19][20][21]. Also, patient self-reporting in the ED has been shown to be better than the chief complaint found in the medical chart for predicting the diagnosis made in the emergency room [22].…”

Impacto clínico de la influenza A H1N1 pandémica en el hospital de Puerto Montt, Chile

“…Sin desconocer lo anterior, es conocido que la infl uenza tiene diferentes presentaciones, la fi ebre algunas veces es baja y cardiopatías o condiciones pulmonares previas pueden confundir el diagnós-tico 7 . En ancianos, el cuadro clínico puede estar modifi cado y la triada fi ebre, tos, e inicio súbito tiene un valor predictivo de sólo 30%, mientras en el adulto joven llega a 78% 8 .…”