Antimicrobial therapy and assessing therapeutic response in culture-negative pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis: a retrospective comparative study with culture-positive pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis

Table 6 Changes of ESR/CRP and VAS score of back pain during 3 months since antimicrobial therapy started

	CN group (n = 41)	CP group (n = 32)	p value ^#	Total (n = 73)
ESR
Initial (at diagnosis)	66.88 ± 31.89	72.44 ± 31.89	0.462	69.32 ± 31.79
1 week	70.98 ± 33.81	74.31 ± 26.84	0.649	72.44 ± 30.79
1 month	55.29 ± 29.94	61.31 ± 31.07	0.405	57.93 ± 30.37
3 months	30.51 ± 19.65⁺	42.81 ± 31.44⁺	0.058	35.90 ± 26.03
CRP
Initial (at diagnosis)*	9.21 ± 7.43	15.17 ± 10.32	0.005	11.83 ± 9.24
1 week	5.67 ± 5.75	6.97 ± 5.74	0.339	6.24 ± 5.74
1 month	1.89 ± 2.05	2.26 ± 2.75	0.516	2.06 ± 2.37
3 months	0.58 ± 0.99⁺	0.79 ± 1.29⁺	0.427	0.67 ± 1.13
VAS score of back pain
Initial (at diagnosis)*	7.41 ± 0.92	8.13 ± 1.13	0.004	7.73 ± 1.07
1 week	5.73 ± 1.18	5.63 ± 1.39	0.724	5.68 ± 1.27
1 month	4.32 ± 1.13	4.47 ± 1.27	0.591	4.38 ± 1.19
3 months	3.37 ± 0.92⁺	3.44 ± 1.27⁺	0.780	3.39 ± 1.08
When discontinuation of parenteral antibiotics
ESR	44.85 ± 24.99	40.31 ± 22.91	0.427	42.86 ± 24.05
CRP	0.89 ± 1.02	0.93 ± 1.37	0.907	0.91 ± 1.18
VAS score of back pain	3.98 ± 1.08	4.16 ± 1.05	0.476	4.05 ± 1.07

CN culture negative, CP culture positive, ESR erythrocyte segmentation rate (normal range < 25 mm/h), CRP C-reactive protein (normal range < 0.5 mg/dL), VAS visual analogue scale, ^# p value between group CN and CP, * There is statistical significant difference between the two groups (p < 0.01) ⁺, There is statistical significant difference compared to initial value (p < 0.01), p values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant

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