All issues > Volume 35(12); 1992

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1992;35(12):1674-1682. Published online December 15, 1992.

Clinical Application of APR score in the Detection of Neonatal Infections; Comparison of Fullterm and Premature

Sei-Joon SJ Ko¹, Sang Mi SM Ha¹, Mi Kyeung MK Lee², Soon Il SI Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Sowha Children`s Hospital, Seoul, Korea
<sup>2</sup>Department of Clinical Pathology, Sowha Children`s Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

We measured APR scores for the 100 newborns of having suspected systemic infection prospectively, and evaluated the clinical significance of the results of the APR scores; in fullterm babies and in premature babies. The percentage of high APR score group (≥2) was 81% in fullterm and 66% in premature babies. When the results of the APR scores were compared to the bacterial culture results, the group of high APR score (≥2) was proved to have a positive cultures in 77% of fullterm, and 61% of premature babies. In contrast, the group of low APR score with systemic infection confirmed by some positive culture results was 23% in fullterm, and 39% in premature babies. We also observed some cases of showing high APR score without proven culture results in 27% of fullterm and 31% of preterm babies. Even though the results of our data do not mean final confirmation of systemic infection, we can conclude that 1) APR score may be useful for screening of early detection of systemic infection in the high risk newborns and give clues to start antibiotic therapy, 2) we must have special consideration for the premature babies to evaluating the meaning of the APR score results for they may show low APR score even in a severe infection state, 3) with the aid of the APR score we can differentiate the active infection from other non-infectious states especially in some complicated cases and can evaluate the infection progress of having long-term antibiotic therapy by follow-up check of APR score.

Keywords :APR score, infection