الفهرس 
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Abstract
Background: Pediatric severe sepsis remains a public health problem. Sepsis remains the most expensive condition in hospital stays. The delay in results of conventional blood cultures may results in inappropriate treatment with increased costs and delay in delivery of adequate treatment.
Objective: To determine the frequency of infection by selected organisms including Candida species, Aspergillus species, MRSA, Acinetobacter baumanni, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa among the pediatric patients admitted to pediatric intensive care unit with sepsis by PCR, to compare PCR as detection methods with the conventional blood culture methods and study sensitivity patterns of detected organisms to antimicrobial therapy.
Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was carried out in Pediatric ICU, Children Hospital, Ain Shams University. It included 45 critically ill patients in pediatric age group (30days-18years) fulfilling the criteria of sepsis. Details of admission and risk factors were recorded. Blood samples were collected from each case for bacterial and fungal culture and sensitivity and PCR for selected organisms.
Results: Total number of positive PCR was 30 in 23 patients with poly-microbial infection in 6 patients (51.1%) compared to 10 for blood culture in 10 patients (22.2%). The frequency of MRSA was 16 (35.6%) of the studied patients by PCR compared to (0%) by blood culture; E.Coli 3 (6.6%) by PCR compared to (0%) by blood culture; Candida albicans 8 (17.8%) by PCR while only 7 (15.6%) were detected by culture and 2 patients (4.4%) with Acinetobacter and one (2.2%) with Klebsiella were detected by both blood culture and PCR .
Conclusion: There was a disagreement between PCR and conventional blood culture as regard the detection of both MRSA and E coli. PCR methods were able to rapidly detect a wider panel of microorganisms and to determine the presence of bacteria especially in those patients with prior antimicrobial treatment.