Comparison of empirically developed sepsis score with a computer generated and weighted scoring system for the identification of sepsis in the equine neonate

Factors associated with outcome and gradual improvement in survival over time in 1065 equine neonates admitted to an intensive care unit

“…The study criteria for sepsis in the current study included positive blood culture, more than one site of infection, or post mortem evidence of more than one septic processes as used in the original description of the sepsis score by Brewer et al [15] and in more recent studies [16,17]. Continuous data are presented as median (10th and 90th percentiles) and proportions are presented as percentages.…”

“…Foals were classified as septic if they fulfilled any or all of the following criteria: 1) Positive blood culture, 2) More than one site of infection based on cytology, culture, or histopathology results, or 3) Post mortem evidence of more than one septic processes as evidenced by culture or histopathology [15]. Selection criteria included documentation of the primary diagnosis, concurrent diseases and complications by the attending clinician at the time of discharge, recorded results of a blood culture and documentation of either discharge from the hospital or nonsurvival (natural death or euthanasia).…”

Uveal Inflammation in Septic Newborn Foals

“…A sepsis scoring system, initially developed and proposed by Brewer and Koterba, 18 has been used by many referral and teaching hospitals as an overall approach to the diagnosis of bacterial infection in the neonatal foal. By assigning numerical values to a number of clinicopathologic variables, including ocular signs, the authors devised a sepsis scoring system with a high sensitivity and specificity compared with confirmed sepsis by blood culture 33 . More recently, the accuracy of this system has been questioned, 34 but it still remains a valuable and frequently used clinical tool.…”

Intragastric pH in critically ill neonatal foals and the effect of ranitidine

“…Data recorded from each foal's medical record included age, breed, sex, primary diseases, duration of gestation, body weight, modified sepsis score, 27 medications administered, whether the foal was predominantly recumbent or ambulatory, time of ranitidine administration, feeding schedule, results of bacterial culture of blood samples obtained at admission, outcome, and necropsy results, if applicable. Four of these had received ranitidine prior to inclusion in the study.…”