The Pediatric infectious disease journal
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Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. · Mar 2010
Predicting severe bacterial infections in well-appearing febrile neonates: laboratory markers accuracy and duration of fever.
To assess the diagnostic accuracy of white blood cell count (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in detecting severe bacterial infections (SBI) in well-appearing neonates with early onset fever without source (FWS) and in relation to fever duration. ⋯ In well-appearing neonates with early onset FWS, laboratory markers are more accurate and reliable predictors of SBI when performed after >12 hours of fever duration. ANC and especially CRP resulted better markers than the traditionally recommended WBC.