Bacteremia: Occult or Nonoccult?
1 The Children's Hospital, University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Denver
To the Editor.
For those many pediatricians who have wondered whether antigen detection would provide a superior means for screening febrile children for bacteremia, Rubin and Carmody (Pediatrics 1987;80:92-96) have provided a thoughtful and needed study. Unfortunately, their results lead one to the conclusion that current technique is not sufficiently discriminating, when applied to all infants at risk for occult bacteremia, to be clinically valuable.
I am concerned, however, whether their study did in fact address the question of occult bacteremia, and I request a clarification of the authors' methods.




