Enrolment characteristics of patients sampled for the microarray and RT-PCR investigations.

Continuous variables are summarized as median (IQR), categorical variables are summarized as number and frequency (%). (a)358 whole-blood RNA samples from the first 123 consecutively enrolled patients were included in the microarray experiment. 11 follow-up samples were missing. (b)600 samples from 223 patients (including the123 patients that were sampled for the microarray) were included in the RT-PCR validation study. (15 pre-treatment, 23 post-treatment and 31 follow-up samples were either missing or of poor quality and were therefore not included). (c)There was one missing value. (*)Fever day (median (IQR) refers to the day of enrolment relative to the day of defervescence, defined as fever day 0.