Improving diagnostic strategies for predicting serious bacterial infections in children with fever

This thesis aimed to improve diagnostic strategies for predicting SBI in febrile children in emergency care settings. Generally, clinical signs and symptoms were of limited use in detecting SBI, even when using modelling techniques that best reflected their predictive ability. C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) were useful diagnostic tools in the diagnostic management of febrile children, whereas neutrophil CD64 count was not. CRP and PCT had considerable incremental value to clinical signs and symptoms, and a prediction model consisting of clinical signs and symptoms and CRP performed well in derivation and validation studies.

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