138 COAGULASE NEGATIVE STAPHYLOCOCCI |[lpar]|CMS|[rpar]| ARE TRUE PATHOGENS IN NEWBORN INFANTS: A PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY

We compared prospectively newborn infants with CNS bacteraemia (group 1) to infants with sepsis due to recognized pathogens (group 2), controls (group 3) and infants with suspected infection but negative blood-cultures (group 4). Ten clinical signs, complete blood cell counts and acute phase proteins (C-reactive protein, α1-acidglycoprotein, prealbumin) were recorded at the time of culture. 31 of 799 blood cultures (10.1%) became CNS positive, 25 (3%) grew other pathogens. 70 controls were matched to CNS positive cases for birthweight, gestational age and postnatal age.