Hot Off the Press! This past Monday, JAMA published a new study titled “Prediction of Bacteremia and Bacterial Meningitis Among Febrile Infants Aged 28 Days or Younger.” The study evaluated whether the PECARN Febrile Infant Prediction Rule (you know the one – negative urine, serum procalcitonin ≤0.5 ng/mL, and ANC ≤4000/mm3) can be applied to infants ≤28 days.
The biggest takeaway? The PECARN rule, applied in more than 1500 infants across 6 countries, missed ZERO cases of bacterial meningitis.
I spoke with Dr. Brett Burstein and Dr. Nate Kuppermann, authors of the study, to unpack what the findings mean and how they may reshape the care of young febrile infants.
My full interview will be released next week, but in the teaser below, I ask Dr. Kuppermann a simple question: Is this a landmark moment in febrile infant care?
Check it out!
Dr. Joshua Belfer, MD, is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of HipPEMcrates. He can be reached at HipPEMcrates@gmail.com.
