The C-reactive protein (CRP) test is used by clinicians in various health care settings. CRP is an acute phase protein released into the blood during an infection or inflammation. There is an increase in the use of CRP test in primary care, accident and emergency departments and outpatient clinics. Measuring CRP in children can be useful for evaluating the severity of inflammation or differentiating between bacterial or viral infection. However, it is unknown which diagnoses are found in the different health care settings.
The aim of this study is to identify the diagnoses made during in hospital admissions in children who are tested with a CRP test, and the values compared to tests done in children who are not admitted to hospital using the records of CRP requests in children between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2017. We will describe the variation in CRP values between diagnoses and settings. Moreover, we will evaluate the feasibility of modelling how CRP changes over time between inpatient admission and discharge for the most common reasons for admission.
See publication: Trends in C reactive protein testing: a retrospective cohort study in paediatric ambulatory care settings