In accordance with the 1st International pediatric sepsis consensus conference, where sepsis was defined as SIRS associated with suspected or proven infection, we have identified the need to assess the prevalence of SIRS and sepsis in children with abnormal temperatures hospitalized in The Children's Clinical University Hospital in Latvia.

Even though sepsis is one of the common causes of children morbidity and mortality, specific inflammatory markers for identifying sepsis are less studied in children. The main aim of this study was to compare the levels of high-mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1), Lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) between infected children without systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and children with severe and less severe sepsis. The second aim was to examine HMGB1, LBP, IL6 and CRP as markers for of bacteraemia.

Sepsis is among the leading causes of critical illness worldwide. It includes physiologic, pathologic, and biochemical abnormalities, induced by infection. Novel methods for recognizing a dysregulated inflammatory response and predicting associated mortality must be developed. Our aim was to investigate biomarkers that characterize a pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory response in patients with fever by comparing predictive validity for sepsis. 165 patients with fever were enrolled in this study, 55 of them had sepsis according to pSOFA criteria. All patients had blood samples drawn at the time of inclusion and after 24 h. CRP, PCT and also IL-6, IL-8 and sFAS levels were significantly higher in patients with sepsis. The AUC of CRP to predict sepsis was 0.799, all the other biomarkers had AUC’s lower than that. Cytokines, when used as a single marker, did not show a significant diagnostic performance We analyzed various models of biomarker combinations. CRP combined with sFAS showed increase in sensitivity in predicting sepsis (88% vs. 83%). The highest AUC was achieved, when CRP, IL-6, sFAS and sVCAM-1 markers were combined 0.830 (95% CI 0.762–0.884) with a sensitivity of 70% and specificity of 84%. vs. 0.799 for CRP alone.

Background: Detection of small proportion of serious bacterial infections (SBI) with a potentially life threating course in a large group of children with fever admitted to emergency department (ED) is still complicated. Measurement of immature granulocytes (IG) percentage may be used as a marker of bacterial infections. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the IG percentage is a useful additional predictive marker of SBI. Methods: This study included 258 children with febrile infections that were admitted to the ED. Clinical follow-up, microbiological and radiological tests were used as reference standards for the definition of SBI. Study population was categorized into two groups: (1) infected patients with no suspicion of SBI (n = 75); (2) patients with suspicion of SBI (n = 183). IG percentage, white blood cell count (WBC), and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were analyzed from the first routine blood samples at hospital admission. Results: A statistically significant difference in IG percentage levels was observed in children with SBI and those without—the mean IG percentage was 1.2% for the SBI group, 0.3% for those without SBI. The cutoff level of IG percentage to predict SBI was 0.45 (84% specificity, 66% sensitivity, 90% positive predictive value). We combine variables and evaluate their additive values. The sensitivity of WBC to detected SBI improved from 74% to 85% when IG percentage was added to the prediction models. When CRP, WBC, and IG percentage were combined, the sensitivity to predict SBI increased to 93%, the specificity to 86% (95% CI 77%–93%). Receiver operator characteristic analysis to predict SBI showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.80 for IG percentage. Conclusion: Addition of IG percentage to traditionally used markers of SBI as WBC and CRP may help to identify children with serious bacterial infections. Furthermore, IG percentage can be rapidly obtained from the traditional full blood count without any extra sampling and costs.

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in young children and infants worldwide, representing a heavy public health burden. Limited information is available regarding the impact of rotavirus gastroenteritis on the quality of life of affected children and their families. The objectives of study were to estimate the impact of rotavirus infection on health-related quality of life (HRQL), to assess the social and emotional effects on the families of affected children. This study enrolled all (n = 527) RotaStrip®-positive (with further PCR detection) cases (0–18 years of age) hospitalized from April 2013 to December 2015 and their caregivers. A questionnaire comprising clinical (filled-in by the medical staff) and social (filled by the caregivers) sections was completed per child. Main indicators of emotional burden reported by caregivers were compassion (reported as severe/very severe by 91.1% of parents), worry (85.2%), stress/anxiety (68.0%). Regarding social burden, 79.3% of caregivers reported the need to introduce changes into their daily routine due to rotavirus infection of their child. Regarding economic burden, 55.1% of parents needed to take days off work because of their child’s sickness, and 76.1% of parents reported additional expenditures in the family’s budget. Objective measures of their child’s health status were not associated with HRQL of the family, as were the parent’s subjective evaluation of their child’s health and some sociodemographic factors. Parents were significantly more worried if their child was tearful (p = 0.006) or irritable (p < 0.001). Parents were more stressful/anxious if their child had a fever (p = 0.003), was tearful (p < 0.001), or was irritable (p < 0.001). Changes in parents’ daily routines were more often reported if the child had a fever (p = 0.02) or insufficient fluid intake (p = 0.04). Objective health status of the child did not influence the emotional, social or economic burden, whereas the parents’ subjective perception of the child’s health status and sociodemographic characteristics, were influential. A better understanding of how acute episodes affect the child and family, will help to ease parental fears and advise parents on the characteristics of rotavirus infection and the optimal care of an infected child.

Background and objectives: In children, acute infection is the most common cause of visits to the emergency department. Although most of them are self-limiting, mortality due to severe bacterial infections (SBI) in developed countries is still high. When the risk of serious bacterial infection is too high to ignore, yet too low to justify admission and hospital observation, clinicians try to improve diagnostic accuracy by performing various laboratory tests. The aim of the study was to investigate whether an early inflammatory cytokine and chemokine panel can add information in diagnostics of SBI and assessment of efficacy of early therapies in hospitalized children with fever. Methods: This study included 51 children with febrile infections that were admitted to the emergency department (ED). Clinical examination and microbiological and radiological tests were used as reference standards for the definition of SBI. Study population was categorized into two groups: (1) patients with SBI (n = 21); (2) patients without SBI (n = 30). Inflammatory cytokine and chemokine panels were analyzed from the first routine blood samples at hospital admission and after 24 h. Results: Out of 12 cytokines and chemokines, only Eotaxin and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) had statistically significant differences between groups at the time of inclusion. Receiver operator characteristic analysis to predict SBI showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.679 for G-CSF. Conclusions: Analysis of inflammatory cytokine profiles may provide additional information in early diagnostics of SBI.