MONOCYTE ANISOCYTOSIS IS ASSOCIATED WITH SEPSIS IN CHILDREN WITH SUSPECTED INFECTION

Area of Science:

• Pediatric emergency medicine
• Hematology
• Infectious disease diagnostics

Background:

• Accurate disease severity assessment in emergency settings is crucial for patient outcomes and cost reduction.
• Monocyte anisocytosis, measured as monocyte distribution width (MDW), correlates with immune dysregulation.
• MDW's association with illness severity in pediatric sepsis and serious infections requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between MDW and illness severity in children presenting with infection.
• To evaluate MDW's utility as a biomarker for identifying sepsis in pediatric patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of whole blood samples from 394 children presenting with illness between April 2020 and September 2022.
• Measurement of MDW using the UniCel DxH 900 analyzer.
• Calculation of SIRS criteria and pSOFA scores, with documentation of infection source.

Main Results:

• MDW was significantly elevated in children with sepsis (28.2 ± 7.8) compared to infected children without sepsis (21.5 ± 5.2).
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.78 for MDW in identifying sepsis.
• MDW demonstrates potential as a useful tool for sepsis detection in children.

Conclusions:

• MDW may serve as a rapid tool for emergency clinicians to identify children at high risk for severe illness.
• Elevated MDW can prompt closer monitoring and intervention for pediatric patients with suspected sepsis.
• This biomarker may assist in differentiating between children who require hospitalization and those who can be safely discharged.