Screening for hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in child abuse evaluations: Twelve years of data.

Background: Laboratory evaluation is commonly integrated into evaluation of children with suspected physical abuse to identify occult injury and potential mimics of abuse, including hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). We evaluated the utility of ferritin in laboratory screening panels for physical abuse.

Objective(s): To determine if hyperferritinemia is a useful screening marker of HLH in physical abuse diagnostic evaluations.

Participants And Setting: Children being evaluated for physical abuse at a quaternary pediatric referral and level one trauma center in Houston, Texas.

Methods: We conducted a 12-year (2003 - 2015) retrospective descriptive analysis of all ferritin values obtained as part of routine screening panels for physical child abuse. Medical records were abstracted for patients with ferritin > 500 ng/mL.

Results: 2954 ferritin levels were obtained in 3091 encounters for suspected physical abuse (median age 6.5 months, interquartile range 2.3-23.5 months). Elevated ferritin was found in 82/2954 (2.8 %); no child evaluated for physical abuse was found to have HLH (95 % CI: 0-4.5%). The child abuse team was consulted in 48/82 (58.5 %) of cases, with the final impression being physical abuse in 33/48 (68.8 %).

Conclusions: We found no instances where HLH was identified by institutional screening panels. The inclusion of ferritin in the screening panel was not beneficial. The presence of hyperferritinemia should not cast medical or legal doubt on physical abuse diagnoses when there is a high index of clinical suspicion. Novel hypotheses from case reports and case series should be studied more rigorously before affecting system change.