Abstract
We enrolled 17 patients, 19–30 y-old, 10 males and 7 females with acute respiratory infection (ARI) and followed them for two weeks. Patients provided blood and urine samples at 0, 7 and 14 d. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP), alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), and alpha-1 antichymotrypsin (ACT) were significantly higher at 0 than at 14 d, but their dynamics differed from each other. CRP declined abruptly from 0 to 14 d whereas AGP was gradual, and ACT lagged compared to the other proteins. Serum CRP >10 mg/L or AGP > 1.0 g/L were used to diagnose inflammation. Serum creatinine concentrations and glomerular filtration rates were within normal limits for this age group, and did not differ significantly between acute infection and convalescence. Mean urinary AGP concentration was three times higher during the acute phase of infection than at 7 and 14 d after (P< 0.05). Sensitivity and specificity analyses of inflammation based on urinary AGP vs. inflammation based on the combination of serum CRP or AGP at 0 and 14 d showed 77-75% sensitivity, respectively, and 100-90% specificity, respectively. Collection of urine samples required no invasive or painful procedures, and a small urine volume, 15 μl, was necessary to measure AGP by radial immunodiffusion. These results showed that urinary AGP is a simple non-invasive method of diagnosing inflammation due to ARI. Support: USAID cooperative agreement.
Published Version
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