Immature neutrophils in young febrile infants

Sriram Ramgopal, Lorne W. Walker, Andrew J. Nowalk, Andrea T. Cruz, Melissa A. Vitale

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background To describe the diagnostic value of the absolute band count (ABC) and ratio of immature to total neutrophils (I:T) for invasive bacterial infections (IBIs; bacterial meningitis and bacteraemia) among young febrile infants. Methods We performed a cross-sectional study in a paediatric emergency department of febrile infants ≤60 days over 12 years to evaluate the accuracy of the ABC and I:T for IBI. Results Of 2930 included patients, 75 (2.6%) had IBIs. The area under the curve (AUC; 95% CI) for ABC was 0.69 (0.62 to 0.76) with sensitivity 0.27 (0.17 to 0.38) and specificity 0.94 (0.93 to 0.95) at cutoff ≥1500 cells/µL. The AUC for I:T was 0.65 (0.59 to 0.72) with sensitivity 0.29 (0.19 to 0.41) and specificity 0.88 (0.87 to 0.89) at cutoff ≥0.2. Only the ABC in infants 29–60 days was minimally accurate. Conclusion The ABC and I:T were generally inaccurate for detecting IBI in febrile infants. Guidelines without these parameters may be better for risk assessment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)884-886
Number of pages3
JournalArchives of Disease in Childhood
Volume104
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 20 2019
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Immature neutrophils in young febrile infants'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this