Biomarker Thresholds for Bacterial Infection in Children ≤36 Months with Fever

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 37 studies published between 2013 and 2023, evaluating diagnostic thresholds for C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, and interleukin-6. The dataset, authored by Natalia Sutiman and shared on figshare, includes pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve statistics for predicting serious bacterial infections in young children presenting with fever without a source. The analysis was registered with PROSPERO under identifier CRD42023439093.

Use Cases

• Validate diagnostic cut-off points for C-reactive protein (CRP) based on reported pooled sensitivity and specificity values.
• Compare the diagnostic performance of procalcitonin (PCT) against CRP using the reported area under the curve (AUC) statistics.
• Assess the limited evidence for interleukin-6 (IL-6) thresholds in pediatric fever based on the single study included.
• Inform clinical decision support tools for pediatric emergency medicine using the identified optimal biomarker thresholds.

Strengths

• Includes data from 37 studies, providing a substantial evidence base.
• Reports specific pooled performance metrics (e.g., sensitivity 0.75, specificity 0.92) for different biomarker cut-offs.
• Analysis covers a defined 10-year period (November 2013 to November 2023).
• Registered with a systematic review protocol (PROSPERO CRD42023439093).

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small (66.6 KB), indicating it contains summary statistics rather than raw patient-level data.
• Geographic scope of the included studies is not specified, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Natalia Sutiman via figshare.

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 07:41:04; freshness should be verified.