Potential and promising marker for serious bacterial infections in children: Delta neutrophil index

This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness and accuracy of the delta neutrophil index (DNI), an index expressing the number of immature granulocytes as a proportion of the total, as an inflammatory marker in predicting serious bacterial infections (SBIs).

Paediatric patients admitted to our hospital with fever were divided into four groups: SBI, non-SBI, COVID-19 and control group. White blood cell count, absolute neutrophil count, C-reactive protein and the DNI were recorded, and their accuracy in predicting SBI was evaluated.

Mean DNI was 4.96 ± 8.38 in the SBI group (150 patients), 0.67 ± 1.68 in the non-SBI group (397 patients), 0.29 ± 0.99 in the COVID-19 group (112 patients) and 0.14 ± 0.21 in the control group (102 patients). The DNI was significantly higher in the SBI group compared with the non-SBI (P < 0.001); the non-SBI group also had higher levels than the COVID-19 group (P = 0.005). One percent increase in the DNI increased the SBI rate 1.36 times (odds ratio 1.36 (95% confidence interval 1.23-1.49), P < 0.001). Based on the determined cut-off value (>2.5%), the DNI (odds ratio 6.27 (95% confidence interval 3.85-10.21), P < 0.001) significantly predicted SBIs with 90.4% specificity and 47.7% sensitivity.

SBIs in childrenare associated with an increase in DNI levels. Compared to other biomarkers, the DNI had higher specificity in predicting SBIs. The DNI may also be usefulin differentiating bacterial and non-bacterial infections in individualclinical syndromes. Currently, there is no evidence that serum DNI aids indifferentiating COVID-19 and upper respiratory tract infection.