Chest
Volume 154, Issue 5, November 2018, Pages 1213-1222
Journal home page for Chest

Recent Advances in Chest Medicine
Testing for Respiratory Viruses in Adults With Severe Lower Respiratory Infection

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2018.06.003Get rights and content

Viral pathogens are a common cause of severe lower respiratory tract infection in adults. Our ability to rapidly and accurately identify viral infections has dramatically improved as slow culture-based techniques have been largely replaced by multiplex high-throughput systems. Given these advances, reevaluation of the role of respiratory viral testing in adults presenting with lower respiratory tract infection is important. This article reviews the potential benefits of testing, provides an overview of the most commonly used diagnostic techniques, and considers whether current evidence supports routine testing.

Key Words

diagnostic testing
pneumonia
viral disease

Abbreviations

CAP
community-acquired pneumonia
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
LRTI
lower respiratory tract infection
PCR
polymerase chain reaction
PCT
procalcitonin
RSV
respiratory syncytial virus
RT-PCR
reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

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FUNDING/SUPPORT: J. M. W. is supported by Northwestern University's Lung Sciences Training Program [Grant 5T32HL076139-13] and a Dixon Translational Research Grant. R. G. W. is supported by NIH/NIAID [Grant 1U19AI135964-01].

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