Background: Early recognition of infectious processes in neutropenic patients is hampered by the fact that these processes may have dissimilar and non-specific clinical presentations. CD64 is a neutrophil surface marker that is not expressed in non-sensitized neutrophils. When the neutrophil is exposed to tumor necrosis factor-alpha it is activated and is measured via the CD64 index.
Methods: This paper evaluated the relationship between the index value of CD64 on the first day of febrile neutropenia and a positive blood culture. The correlations with white blood count, C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were also evaluated. This case-control, prospective, diagnostic study included 64 episodes of neutropenia. Case group (n=14) comprised positive blood cultures, and the control group (n=50), negative blood cultures.
Results: The median rates of CD64 were 2.1 (σ±3.9) in the case group and 1.76 (σ±5.02) in the control group. There was no correlation between the value of the CD64 index and blood cultures. The CD64 index was also not correlated with C-reactive protein positivity. Furthermore, the CD64 index was not able to predict blood culture positivity. The sensitivity was 64.3%, the specificity was 42%, the positive predictive value was 23.7% and the negative predictive value was 80%. For C-reactive protein, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 71.4%, 32%, 22.7%, and 80%, respectively.
Conclusion: The CD64 index is not suitable for predicting the positivity of blood cultures in this specific population of patients with febrile neutropenia.
Keywords: Antigens CD64; C reactive protein; Febrile neutropenia; Flow cytometry; Sepsis.
Copyright © 2015 Associação Brasileira de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.