Using Self Organizing Maps to Compare Sepsis Patients from the Neonatal and Adult Intensive Care Unit

Neonatal sepsis, a blood infection occurring in infants younger than 90 days old, represents a significant source of mortality and morbidity among infants.¹ Mortality rates increase with postnatal age and can be as high as 52% (36% in newborns aged 8-14 days and 52% in those aged 15-28 days).² While sepsis in adults has a generally accepted definition, the definition for clinical diagnosis in infants is less well defined. Using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care database (MIMIC-III), patient diagnoses and microbiology results records were processed with an artificial neural network trained using unsupervised learning known as a self-organizing map (SOM). The results of this feasibility study suggest a low degree of overlap between the presentation of sepsis in neonate and adult intensive care unit populations. As a consequence, it supports the need for dedicated research in neonatal sepsis, which may manifest differently than adult sepsis.