Subject(s)
Enterocolitis, Necrotizing , Gastrointestinal Microbiome , Sepsis , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Infant, PrematureABSTRACT
Development of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is considered to be dependent on the bacterial colonisation of the gut. With little concordance between published data and a recent study failing to detect a common strain in infants with NEC, more questions than answers are arising about our understanding of this complex disease.
Subject(s)
Bacteria/isolation & purification , Enterocolitis, Necrotizing/microbiology , Hospitalization , Intestines/microbiology , HumansABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Establish how neutrophil CD64 performs as a marker of definite infection in pre-term infants in comparison to C reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT). METHODS: A total of 38 pre-term infants with suspected late onset infection had CD64 measured by flow cytometry. Proportionate reduction in uncertainty (PRU) curves were generated for CD64 counts at various threshold values. RESULTS: PRU curves reduced the residual uncertainty of the presence of infection by up to 64%. CONCLUSIONS: The CD64 appears to be a useful point of care test (POCT) for further defining the likelihood of infection and performs better than CRP or PCT at helping to rule in infection.
