Sex and Gender Appraisal Tool-Systematic Reviews-2 and Participation-To-Prevalence Ratio assessed to whom the evidence applies in sepsis reviews.

OBJECTIVES: To revise a sex and gender appraisal tool for systematic reviews (SGAT-SR) and apply it to Cochrane sepsis reviews. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The revision process was informed by existing literature on sex, gender, intersectionality, and feedback from an expert advisory board. We revised the items to consider additional factors associated with health inequities and appraised sex and gender considerations using the SGAT-SR-2 and female Participation-to-Prevalence Ratio (PPR) in Cochrane sepsis reviews. RESULTS: SGAT-SR-2 consists of 19 questions appraising the review's sections and use of the terms sex and gender. amongst 71 SRs assessed, 50.7% included at least one tool item, the most frequent being the number of participants by sex or gender at included study-level (24/71 reviews). Only four reviews provided disaggregated data for the full set of included trials, while two considered other equity-related factors. Reviews rarely appraised possible similarities and differences across sex and gender. In half of a subset of reviews, female participants were under-represented relative to their share of the sepsis population (PPR<0.8). CONCLUSION: The SGAT-SR-2 tool and the PPR can support the design and appraisal of systematic reviews to assess sex and gender considerations, address to whom evidence applies, and determine future research needs.

Evaluation of a latex test for rotavirus detection.

A latex agglutination (LA) test (Slidex Rota-Kit; bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France) was a rapid, easily used method for detecting rotavirus (RV) in pediatric fecal specimens. With 45 RV-positive and 50 RV-negative diarrhea specimens, the sensitivity of the LA test was 82%, and the specificity was 100%. Six other specimens produced indeterminate results. The frequency of positive LA tests appeared to be proportional to the concentration of virions in the stool.

Adenoviruses and pediatric gastroenteritis.

Adenoviruses were found in 8.6% of 900 pediatric inpatients with diarrhea who were tested by electron microscopy of a fecal specimen and cell culture inoculation of a throat swab and an anal swab specimen. In 5.1% of these patients, including 13.5% of patients who were four through five months of age, adenovirus particles were visualized in the fecal specimen. Controlled study demonstrated that visualized adenoviruses, especially those that did not grow readily in conventional Hep-2 cell cultures, were significantly associated with diarrhea. About 80% of the visualized adenoviruses from patients with diarrhea or vomiting or both, including 94% of the viruses that grew in the 293 cell line but that did not grow readily in Hep-2 cultures, proved to be enteral adenoviruses--adenoviruses from either group F (type 40) or group G (type 41). Inpatients with gastroenteritis and confirmed enteral adenoviruses ranged in age from one through 16 months, with a median age of seven months. Enteral adenoviruses apparently are endemic in this locale, as one or more of these viruses have been found in every calendar month for nine successive years.

Pediatric viral gastroenteritis during eight years of study.

During the period January 1974 through July 1982, fecal samples from 1,537 pediatric inpatients with gastroenteritis were tested for enteric viruses by electron microscopic and rotavirus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. Rotaviruses were detected in 34.5% of these patients, enteric adenoviruses were detected in 4.7%, approximately 27-nm viruses were detected in 1.6%, and at least one of these agents was found in 40.1% of the study subjects. Three infections were by an apparently new agent which morphologically is a rotavirus, but which failed to react in the rotavirus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. During the first 8 calendar years of study, rotaviruses were detected in 39.0% of 577 patients in the even-numbered years and 30.3% of 702 patients in the odd-numbered years. Adenoviruses were found in all calendar months. Rotaviruses were found in inpatients in November through July, whereas approximately 27-nm viruses were found in October through June. The percentage of patients who had a demonstrated viral infection rose steadily from 7.4% in September to 72.0% in January and then steadily declined to 2.9% in August. Viral infection was especially common in study subjects who were 7 through 24 months of age; 61% of such children had one or more enteric viruses. Rotavirus-infected patients tended to be younger during the months of greatest rotavirus activity than at the beginning and end of the rotavirus season, presumably because of a greater exposure to virus at the height of the rotavirus outbreak.