A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial for Antibiotic Exposure in Neonatal Sepsis Using Neutrophil CD64
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01825421 |
Recruitment Status
:
Withdrawn
(No funding obtained)
First Posted
: April 5, 2013
Last Update Posted
: July 15, 2015
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Unnecessary and prolonged antibiotic therapy in newborn babies can have serious consequences including development of necrotizing enterocolitis (a serious, potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal illness in premature babies), late-onset infections, resistance to antibiotics, increased length of hospital stay, and death.
Starting and continuing antibiotic therapy for blood culture-negative infections in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is fairly common with numbers of such patients varying from 20%-90% of infants undergoing a sepsis evaluation in the NICU.
While blood culture results are the gold standard, there is usually a delay of up to 48-72h before the results are known. Hence, initiation and continuation of antibiotic treatment are usually based on clinical evaluation and blood count criteria which do not possess high specificity or sensitivity, and may be unreliable in the first few hours after birth or in the early stages of infection.
Since the investigators found that neutrophil CD64 (a type of protein found on the surface of a type of white blood cell that can be detected quickly in a very small amount of blood sample) has high accuracy for early detection of blood culture-proven infections in newborn babies, with extremely high negative predictive value (can identify babies definitively with no infection), the investigators will use this test to decide whether to stop or continue antibiotics in the NICU.
The investigators hypothesis is that neutrophil CD64 values can be safely used to discontinue antibiotics in newborns suspected of having infections.
The investigators aims are to utilize sequential measurements of CD64 values to stop antibiotics early in neonates being investigated for both early and late-onset infections in the NICU.
This is a prospective, randomized, controlled (RCT) trial. The study population will be derived from the sub-set of all newborn infants who have undergone investigations for presence of infection in the NICU.
Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Neonatal Early-onset Sepsis Neonatal Late-onset Sepsis | Other: Intervention is to stop antibiotics at 24h . | Not Applicable |
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 0 participants |
Allocation: | Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Single Group Assignment |
Masking: | None (Open Label) |
Primary Purpose: | Treatment |
Official Title: | A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial for Antibiotic Exposure in Neonatal Sepsis Using Neutrophil CD64 |
Study Start Date : | October 2014 |
Estimated Primary Completion Date : | January 2016 |
Estimated Study Completion Date : | June 2016 |
Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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No Intervention: Control (continue antibiotics) group
The antibiotics will be continued for at least another 24h i.e. for 48h, pending blood culture results at 48h, as per standard practice in the NICU.
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Active Comparator: Study (discontinue antibiotics) group
The intervention is to discontinue antibiotics at 24h, and he/she will be kept under observation in the NICU for at least an additional 24h, pending blood culture results at 48h.
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Other: Intervention is to stop antibiotics at 24h .
Stoppage of antibiotics at 24h in the intervention arm, randomization based on neutrophil CD64 values.
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- Number of infants with early-onset sepsis (EOS) and late-onset sepsis (LOS) randomized to either stopping or continuing antibiotics at 24h, based on the neutrophil CD64 measurement [ Time Frame: At 48h after initiation of antibiotics. ]
- Change in the Neutrophil CD64 Index value in neonates with/without exposure to antibiotics from 24h to 48h. [ Time Frame: At 48h after initiation of antibiotics. ]
- Number of positive blood cultures in neonates from 24h to 48h with/without exposure to antibiotics. [ Time Frame: At 48h after initiation of antibiotics. ]

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Ages Eligible for Study: | up to 5 Months (Child) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
- Infants undergoing a sepsis evaluation in the NICU
Exclusion Criteria:
- They have a major life-threatening congenital malformation
- The attending neonatologist has objections to the infant participating in the study

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01825421
United States, Connecticut | |
Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital NICU | |
New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06520 |
Responsible Party: | Yale University |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT01825421 History of Changes |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
nCD64 ABX NICU - 01 |
First Posted: | April 5, 2013 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | July 15, 2015 |
Last Verified: | July 2015 |
Keywords provided by Yale University:
Infant Infection Newborn |
Antibiotics Neutrophil CD64 Blood Culture |
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Sepsis Toxemia Neonatal Sepsis Infection Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome Inflammation |
Pathologic Processes Infant, Newborn, Diseases Anti-Bacterial Agents Antibiotics, Antitubercular Anti-Infective Agents Antitubercular Agents |