The Step-By-Step approach is a sequence of clinical or laboratory findings that can help to triage a febrile infant.
Patient selection: febrile infant <= 90 days old, previously healthy, without clear source of fever
Criteria for high-risk - one or more of the following:
(1) ill-appearing with abnormal Pediatric Assessment Triangle
(2) age <= 21 days old
(3) leukocyturia
(4) serum procalcitonin >= 0.5 ng/mL
(6) serum CRP > 20 mg/L
(7) absolute neutrophil count > 10,000 per microliter
If none of these findings are present then the infant is classified as low risk for an invasive bacterial infection.
