BIOMARKER PROFILES AS PREDICATORS OF NEONATAL SEPSIS AND RECOVERY

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 细菌血液感染是新生儿重症监护病房中一个常见而严重的问题，特别是在极低出生体重儿中。血培养诊断困难、耗时、灵敏度低。超过20%的极低出生体重儿经历了一次或多次迟发性败血症[定义为出生3天后发生的任何败血症]。迟发性脓毒症首发的中位年龄为17天。推迟治疗，直到出现症状可能会危及生命。另一方面，在未感染的婴儿中反复使用抗菌剂治疗，会进一步发展耐药微生物，从而对这些婴儿构成潜在风险。因此，这是一个理想的人群评估，以开发一种快速和敏感的产品来识别感染。 与年龄较大的儿童和成年人相比，新生儿[特别是早产儿或出生体重极低的婴儿]感染危及生命的风险要大得多。用目前的实验室方法很难诊断这些感染。由于这些感染的性质危及生命，新生儿重症监护病房[NICU]的婴儿几乎总是被给予强力抗生素，直到我们能够确认是否确实存在感染。虽然这些药物是必要的，但过于频繁地使用它们会导致细菌产生抗药性，从而阻止抗生素的有效。 这项研究的目的是探索一种新的实验室方法，利用一滴血来诊断新生儿感染。从这少量的血液中，我们可以检测感染的标志。我们将寻找可能表明婴儿被感染的标记。我们打算将这些测试与目前的方法进行比较，以找出是否可以更快地诊断严重感染。这可能会让我们避免在不需要的时候用抗生素治疗婴儿。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Bacterial blood infection is a frequent and serious problem in neonatal intensive care units, particularly in very low birth weight infants. Diagnosis by blood culture is difficult, time consuming, and lacks sensitivity. Over 20% of all very low birth weight infants experience one or more episodes of late onset sepsis [defined as any sepsis occurring after 3 days of age]. The median age for the first episode of late onset sepsis is 17 days. Delaying treatment until symptoms arise can be life threatening. On the other hand, recurrent treatment with antimicrobial agents in infants that are not infected holds potential risks to these infants by furthering the development of resistant organisms. This therefore, is an ideal population to evaluate to develop a rapid and sensitive product to identify infection. Newborns [especially premature infants or those with very low birth weight] are at much greater risk for life-threatening infections than older children and adults. Diagnosing these infections is difficult with current laboratory methods. Because of the life-threatening nature of these infections, infants in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit [NICU] are almost always placed on powerful antibiotics until we can confirm whether or not an infection is truly present. While these medications are necessary, using them too frequently can cause germs to develop resistance, which prevents the antibiotics from being effective. The purpose of this research study is to investigate a new laboratory method of diagnosing infections in newborns using a single drop of blood. From this small amount of blood we can test for markers of infection. We will be looking for markers that would suggest that an infant is infected. We intend to compare these tests with current methods in order to find out if we can diagnose serious infections more quickly. This may allow us to avoid treating infants with antibiotics when they are not needed.