Impact of the Lab-score on Antibiotic Prescription Rate in Children With Fever Without Source

Impact of the Lab-score on Antibiotic Prescription Rate in Children Aged 7 Days to 3 Years Old With Fever Without Source.

Detecting serious bacterial infections (SBI) in children presenting to the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) with fever without source (FWS) is a frequent diagnostic challenge. The recently described Lab-score, based on the combined determination of Procalcitonin, C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and urine dipstick results, has been shown an accurate tool for SBI prediction on retrospective cohorts. The investigators aimed to assess the usefulness of the Lab-score in safely decreasing unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions in children with FWS, and to prospectively determine the diagnostic characteristics of the Lab-score compared to other classically used SBI biomarkers (white blood cell (WBC) count, band count and CRP).

Inclusion Criteria:

• children aged 7 days to 3 years old
• fever without source ≥ 100.4°F (≥ 38.0°C)

Exclusion Criteria:

• antibiotics received in the previous 48 hours
• underlying congenital or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
• fever for more than 7 days at presentation