- Cruz, Andrea;
- Vitale, Melissa;
- Powell, Elizabeth;
- Leetch, Aaron;
- Pickett, Michelle;
- Brayer, Anne;
- Nigrovic, Lise;
- Dayan, Peter;
- Atabaki, Shireen;
- Ruddy, Richard;
- Rogers, Alexander;
- Greenberg, Richard;
- Alpern, Elizabeth;
- Tunik, Michael;
- Saunders, Mary;
- Muenzer, Jared;
- Levine, Deborah;
- Hoyle, John;
- Lillis, Kathleen;
- Gattu, Rajender;
- Crain, Ellen;
- Borgialli, Dominic;
- Bonsu, Bema;
- Blumberg, Stephen;
- Anders, Jennifer;
- Roosevelt, Genie;
- Browne, Lorin;
- Cohen, Daniel;
- Linakis, James;
- Jaffe, David;
- Bennett, Jonathan;
- Schnadower, David;
- Park, Grace;
- Mistry, Rakesh;
- Glissmeyer, Eric;
- Cator, Allison;
- Bogie, Amanda;
- Quayle, Kimberly;
- Ellison, Angela;
- Balamuth, Fran;
- Richards, Rachel;
- Ramilo, Octavio;
- Mahajan, Prashant;
- VanBuren, John;
- Kuppermann, Nathan;
- Tzimenatos, Leah
UNLABELLED: It is unknown whether febrile infants 29 to 60 days old with positive urinalysis results require routine lumbar punctures for evaluation of bacterial meningitis. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of bacteremia and/or bacterial meningitis in febrile infants ≤60 days of age with positive urinalysis (UA) results. METHODS: Secondary analysis of a prospective observational study of noncritical febrile infants ≤60 days between 2011 and 2019 conducted in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network emergency departments. Participants had temperatures ≥38°C and were evaluated with blood cultures and had UAs available for analysis. We report the prevalence of bacteremia and bacterial meningitis in those with and without positive UA results. RESULTS: Among 7180 infants, 1090 (15.2%) had positive UA results. The risk of bacteremia was higher in those with positive versus negative UA results (63/1090 [5.8%] vs 69/6090 [1.1%], difference 4.7% [3.3% to 6.1%]). There was no difference in the prevalence of bacterial meningitis in infants ≤28 days of age with positive versus negative UA results (∼1% in both groups). However, among 697 infants aged 29 to 60 days with positive UA results, there were no cases of bacterial meningitis in comparison to 9 of 4153 with negative UA results (0.2%, difference -0.2% [-0.4% to -0.1%]). In addition, there were no cases of bacteremia and/or bacterial meningitis in the 148 infants ≤60 days of age with positive UA results who had the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network low-risk blood thresholds of absolute neutrophil count <4 × 103 cells/mm3 and procalcitonin <0.5 ng/mL. CONCLUSIONS: Among noncritical febrile infants ≤60 days of age with positive UA results, there were no cases of bacterial meningitis in those aged 29 to 60 days and no cases of bacteremia and/or bacterial meningitis in any low-risk infants based on low-risk blood thresholds in both months of life. These findings can guide lumbar puncture use and other clinical decision making.