Biomarker Thresholds for Serious Bacterial Infections in Children ≤36 Months

37 studies from a systematic review and meta-analysis provide pooled diagnostic accuracy metrics for C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, and interleukin-6. The data, published by Natalia Sutiman in 2026, identifies optimal cut-off values for predicting serious bacterial infections in young children presenting with fever without a source. Results include pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve statistics for different biomarker thresholds.

Use Cases

• Validate diagnostic thresholds for C-reactive protein (CRP) based on reported pooled sensitivity and specificity.
• Compare the diagnostic performance of procalcitonin (PCT) versus CRP using the reported area under the curve (AUC) values.
• Assess the limited evidence for interleukin-6 (IL-6) as a biomarker based on the single study included in the review.
• Inform clinical decision rules for fever without source in young children using the identified optimal cut-off ranges.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a systematic review of 37 studies, providing a synthesized evidence base.
• Results include specific, statistically significant cut-off values with 95% confidence intervals for CRP and PCT.
• The review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023439093), indicating a structured methodology.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is very small (67.3 KB), suggesting it contains summary statistics rather than raw patient-level data.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Natalia Sutiman.

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies from MEDLINE, Cochrane, CINAHL, and Web of Science.

Time Range

Studies published between November 2013 and November 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-18 07:41:07; freshness should be verified.