Can Point-of-Care C-Reactive Protein Testing Help Identify Sick Children?

Identifying which febrile children have a serious illness and which children do not continues to elude practitioners. Guidelines that incorporate clinical presentation and laboratory tests abound, but the search for better and faster tests that will not miss seriously ill children continues.

This prospective study from Belgium included 5517 febrile episodes in children aged 1 month to 16 years who presented to ambulatory care or emergency department settings over a 12-month period. Five percent of children had a serious bacterial infection identified within 5 days of initial evaluation. Of these children, more than half had pneumonia and 20% had complicated urinary tract infections.

Physicians assessed numerous clinical features and performed…