Editor—Fowlie and Schmidt reviewed numerous publications on haematological parameters and C reactive protein for the diagnosis of bacterial infections and tried to select these publications according to well chosen criteria.1 However, they omitted to examine the publications for two criteria that substantially influence the study results.

Eight studies on band counts or immature to total neutrophil ratios were reviewed. But only the authors of two studies2 3actually defined how an immature neutrophil was differentiated from a segmented neutrophil—that is, …