In 2002 the International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference created definitions for the systemic inflammatory response syndrome adaptable for children from term neonates to adolescents as entry criteria for clinical trials for making studies easier to compare.1 So far their applicability in term and preterm newborns with correlation to early-onset bacterial infection (EOBI) has not been evaluated.

In a retrospective analysis of all newborns aged below 3 days, hospitalised at a tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit, 214 of 662 neonates (32%) were positive regarding systemic inflammatory response syndrome SIRS) criteria (two out of four criteria, points (a) or …