Abstract
Purpose:
Adenoviral conjunctivitis is extremely contagious and may be severe. It is challenging to make an accurate early diagnosis based on clinical signs and symptoms only. AdenoPlus® is a CE marked rapid differential diagnostic IVDMD. ADVISE is a non-interventional, observational epidemiology study. Its main objectives are to assess clinical characteristics and incidence of adenoviral conjunctivitis in patients who present with signs and symptoms of acute conjunctivitis.
Methods:
This interim analysis included data collected from 332 patients from 16 sites in France. Prior to inclusion, patients gave their oral consent. Inclusion criteria were: presence of acute signs and symptoms of conjunctivitis inferior or equal to 7 days duration, and a minimum age of 1 year-old. Patients already treated with topical antiviral therapies, steroids or immunomodulators were excluded.
Results:
The percentage of positive tests was 36.1% (120/332). Two invalid test results were reported (0.6%), 49.1% of the investigators had their clinical assessment confirmed by the test whilst it was not confirmed in 50.9% of the cases. Patients were mostly active adults (mean age 42.2 yo) without any eye medical history, 68.4% of the patients already received local antibiotics before the study visit.<br /> In the population of patients who were tested positive with AdenoPlus®, the visits occurred statistically significantly earlier (2.9 vs.7.2 days, p=0.008), “red eye” was assessed as more severe and overall, higher percentages of signs and symptoms were reported (e.g. purulent eye discharge, chemosis, petechia, keratitis, lymphadenopathy, photophobia), although none of them could be identified as pathognomonic of the disease. Fifty percent of positive patients reported a previous contact with someone with “red eye”.
Conclusions:
Approximately 4 out of 10 patients presenting with signs and symptoms of acute conjunctivitis, suspected to be from viral origin, had a positive result with AdenoPlus®. These study results also pointed out the severity of adenoviral conjunctivitis and its contagiousness, highlighting the need of implementing preventive measures to contain the virus spread.