Reply to the Letter to the Editor: “CT in necrotizing soft tissue infection: diagnostic criteria and comparison with LRINEC score”
by Robert M. Kwee (rmkwee@gmail.com)
CT in necrotizing soft tissue infection: diagnostic criteria and comparison with LRINEC scoreDear Editor in Chief,
We thank our colleagues from Colombia for their interest in our article [1]. Indeed, it is known that fluid along the deep fascia may be present in other diseases than necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI). Therefore, as always, imaging should be correlated with clinical and laboratory findings. Accordingly, as we have mentioned in our conclusion, the presence of fluid along the deep fascia at CT is highly suggestive for NSTI if it matches the right clinical setting [1].
NSTI is a relatively rare disease and It is true that the number of patients with NSTI in our study was relatively low, which we have acknowledged in the discussion section of our article. Probably Galo, Páez and Valencia misread the methods and results section of our article [1], as we included only 2 variables (not 6) in the multiple logistic regression analysis. Nevertheless, we agree that larger sample sizes may provide even more robust results, for which we would like to refer to a recent meta-analysis, which aggregates all available data on this topic [2].