High erythrocyte sedimentation rate as a predictor of early occult bacteraemia in febrile infants and young children

ABSTRACT

Occult bacteraemia is more common in febrile infants and young children. This work was carried out to study if the erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR] as a simple, cheap and rapid test can be used as a good screening test for the early detection of occult bacertaemia in febrile pediatric patients. Two hundred children aged 6 to 24 months were included in this study. All of them had fever for less than 48 hours and blood culture was positive in 6% of them. High ESR [>/= 3mm/hour] and four other clinical and laboratory criteria were chosen to assess their association with occult bacteremia. These included high fever [>/= 40 C reactive protein, high total white blood cell count [>/= 15.000/mm3] and high polymorphonuclear leukocyte count [>/= 10.000/mm3]. All five parameters proved to be statistically related to the presence of occult bacteraemia. High ESR had good sensitivity, the highest specificity, the highest positive predictive value and a good negative predictive value compared to the other tests. So. ESR can be used as a rusted screening test for early detection of occult bacteraemia in young febrile patients. This is in agreement with the results of many other investigators