C-reactive protein (CRP) as an indicator of bacterial infection in children / Sharmimi Edmira Mohd Hassan

The aim of the present study is to determine the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) level and blood culture in children suspected with bacterial infection. In this study, serum CRP level was used to diagnose the present of bacterial infection in patient. Data were randomly collected and extracted from the Laboratory Information System (LIS) in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA), Kuantan, Pahang from 50 patients that performed CRP test and blood culture test together. Based on the data, diagnosis of patients were categorize into three groups including true bacterial infection, probable bacterial infection and non-bacterial infection. Out of 50 patients, 3 patients were detected with bacterial infection. These 3 patients clinically have high serum CRP level with positive blood culture. 6% cases were diagnosed as bacterial infection based on their high serum CRP level with positive blood culture while 94% cases were diagnosed as non-bacterial infection based on their low serum CRP level with negative blood culture. In conclusion, C-reactive protein (CRP) cannot be considered as a valuable marker for early diagnosis of bacterial infection in this study but it show more valuable information for diagnosing bacterial infection if performed with other test.