ADenoVirus Initiative Study in Epidemiology (ADVISE): Results of a multicentric epidemiology study in Spain.

OBJECTIVE: Non-interventional, observational, epidemiology study to assess clinical characteristics and frequency of adenovirus conjunctivitis diagnosed by AdenoPlus® in patients who presented with signs and symptoms of acute conjunctivitis. Safety aspects during use of the test were analyzed as well.

METHOD: This analysis presents the data obtained from the 386 patients enrolled in Spain. Patients had to present with acute signs and symptoms of conjunctivitis ≤7days. The minimum age was 1year old. Patients who had already used local antiviral therapies, topical steroids or immuno-modulators were not allowed to enter the study. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect patient's ocular history and test results.

RESULTS: A total of 386 patients were recruited in 22 sites, being analyzed 329 patients. Among them, the percentage of "AdenoPlus® positive" was 36,2% (119/329). Before the test was performed, in 84,1% of the cases, investigators believed that the conjunctivitis was of viral origin but only 50,3% of the investigators had their clinical assessment confirmed by the test. Patients who tested positive for adenoviral conjunctivitis presented higher percentages of signs and symptoms than the rest of the patients.

CONCLUSIONS: None of the signs or symptoms could be qualified as pathognomonic of the disease, being difficult for the clinicians to perform an accurate diagnosis. AdenoPlus® test is an antigen based immunoassay test that detects the presence of adenovirus directly from tears, and it can be an useful tool to help early differential diagnosis in patients with conjunctivitis signs and symptoms lasting for less than or equal to 7days.