Open AccessValue of routine blood cultures in febrile children presenting to the Emergency Department
Author(s) -
Galia Zaied Awean,
Khalel Salamah,
Naser Elkum,
Lars O. Hedin,
Abdussalam Shah Ak Shah
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of emergency medicine, trauma and acute care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.27
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1999-7094
pISSN - 1999-7086
DOI - 10.5339/jemtac.2016.icepq.3
Subject(s) - medicine , emergency department , blood culture , gold standard (test) , pediatrics , pediatric intensive care unit , retrospective cohort study , emergency medicine , antibiotics , psychiatry , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Background: A minority of children attend an Emergency may have a serious underlying, systemic infection as a cause of fever. Blood culture remains the gold standard approach to establish the diagnosis and presence of pathogens in a child with suspected, serious bacterial infection. This study describes the proportion of positive blood cultures and correlation with a basic investigation (C-reactive protein, absolute neutrophil count) and clinical presentation in children visiting an emergency. Methods: A retrospective study at Qatar- Al Wakra Hospital- pediatric emergency over one year. Patients younger than or equal to 3 months of age, patients with any form of immune deficiency and patient with no fever were excluded. Results: A total 828 patients (mean age 3.83 years), presenting with fever or a history of fever, 121 (14.6%) admitted to the pediatric ward, 10 (1.2%) admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, 1 (0.12%) admitted to the pediatric surgery. In total, 20 (2.4%) had positive blood culture, of these 20, 4 (20%) were admitted to the pediatric ward, and 9 (45%) were observed in the hospital less than 24 hrs, 7 (35%) were sent to their home after the investigations. We find no differences in the mean value of ANC (p = 0.934) or CRP (p = 0.572) in patient with positive or negative blood culture. Conclusion: The yield of positive Blood Culture in routine care in an emergency department setting is low, 2.4%. There were no significant differences in associated clinical and laboratory investigations (ANC and CRP) between the groups with positive and negative blood cultures.