1887
2 - International Conference in Emergency Medicine and Public Health-Qatar Proceedings
  • ISSN: 1999-7086
  • EISSN: 1999-7094

Abstract

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/content/journals/10.5339/jemtac.2016.icepq.3
2016-10-09
2024-03-29
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  • Article Type: Research Article
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