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Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging zoonosis caused by a novel bunyavirus. Until recently, rhabdomyolysis in SFTS was not elucidated. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of rhabdomyolysis and its association with AKI and prognosis in patients with SFTS. A total of 231 consecutive patients diagnosed with SFTS were enrolled, including 144 (62.3%) patients in the no rhabdomyolysis group and 87 (37.7%) patients in the rhabdomyolysis group. Clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters of SFTS patients were compared between the no rhabdomyolysis and rhabdomyolysis groups. Patients with rhabdomyolysis had more frequency of confusion, cough, sputum, chest distress, abdominal pain, petechia and ecchymosis, headache, myalgia, and myasthenia than those without rhabdomyolysis. Compared with patients in the no rhabdomyolysis group, patients in the rhabdomyolysis group had higher serum levels of laboratory parameters referring to liver, kidney, pancreas, heart, coagulation system injury, and higher viral load. The cumulative survival rate of patients with rhabdomyolysis was significantly lower than that of patients without rhabdomyolysis. Furthermore, univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses demonstrated that rhabdomyolysis was an independent predictor for acute kidney injury and mortality in patients with SFTS. Rhabdomyolysis may be an important contributing factor to adverse outcomes and its effects on mortality may be mediated by acute kidney injury in SFTS. The early detection and effective intervention of rhabdomyolysis may decrease the mortality of patients with SFTS., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the diagnostic values of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and BALF metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)., Methods: A total of 99 HIV-infected PJP patients and 61 HIV-infected patients diagnosed with non-PJP pneumonia between March 2019 and December 2022 were enrolled. P. jirovecii and multiple other co-pathogens detected in BALF by mNGS were analyzed. The clinical final diagnosis was employed as a benchmark. We compared the diagnostic performance of mNGS in PJP with serum BDG and BALF real-time PCR. The mixed infections detected by mNGS and modifications of antimicrobial treatment were also analyzed., Results: The sensitivity of mNGS test of BALF samples reached 85.86%, which was significantly higher than serum BDG (39.39%, P < 0.001). The sensitivity of BALF P. jirovecii PCR (84.85%) was similar with mNGS ( P > 0.05). The specificity of mNGS (100%) was also same as PCR (100.0%), and superior to serum BDG (88.52%, P < 0.001). Besides, mNGS performs remarkably well in identifying co-pathogens of PJP patients infected with HIV. In addition to P. jirovecii , 82 cases (82.83%) of other co-pathogens were identified based on mNGS. Moreover, thirty-four patients (34.34%) increased therapeutic dose of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ) based on BALF P. jirovecii PCR. Based on the mNGS results, initial antimicrobial treatment was modified in 86.87% (86/99) of PJP patients., Conclusion: BALF mNGS and real-time PCR are two powerful techniques for rapid diagnosis of PJP with high specificity and sensitivity. Moreover, the benefit of mNGS is that it may identify other organisms besides PJP and it may benefit proper and prompt treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Chen, Chen, Mo, Chen, Du, Hu, Jiang, Zhang, Zhang, Guo, Xiong and Deng.)