thrombocytosis as potential diagnostic tool for serious bacterial infection in febrile infants; srinagar, india

objective: to estimate incidence of reactive thrombocytosis among febrile infants and assess utility of platelet count as a potential predictor and diagnostic tool of serious bacterial infection .design:prospective non randomized study conducted between april 2011 to march 2012setting: tertiary care pediatric unit.inclusion criteria:all infants 30 to 89 days of age, admitted with rectal temperature >38°c/100.4°f without apparent focus of an infection.exclusion criteria:infants having fever more than 72 hours and who had received antibiotics or vaccination within 48 hours of presentation.main outcome measures: sepsis evaluation was done on admission. sbi included all cases of occult bacteremia, urinary tract infection, bacterial meningitis, pneumonia, bacterial gastroenteritis and infections of the soft tissues and bones.results: of the 149 infants studied, 39 (26.2%) had sbi. platelet count was significantly higher in infants with sbi compared to those without {platelet count ≥ 4 lakh /mm3 in sbi (84.6%) vs non sbi (542.4% ). mean platelet count 5.1 ± 1.1 in sbi versus 3.9 ± 1.6 in non sbi which was statistically significant p