Gut bacteria and necrotizing enterocolitis: cause or effect?

Development of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is considered to be dependent on the bacterial colonisation of the gut. With little concordance between published data and a recent study failing to detect a common strain in infants with NEC, more questions than answers are arising about our understanding of this complex disease.

Proportionate reduction in uncertainty of late onset infection in pre-term infants by neutrophil CD64 measurement.

Objective: Establish how neutrophil CD64 performs as a marker of definite infection in pre-term infants in comparison to C reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT).

Methods: A total of 38 pre-term infants with suspected late onset infection had CD64 measured by flow cytometry. Proportionate reduction in uncertainty (PRU) curves were generated for CD64 counts at various threshold values.