Investigations

No investigations are required for LOW risk patients but some units may prefer to do a capillary blood gas and ECG as standard.

For HIGH risk patients do a capillary blood gas and ECG as a minimum, and keep these patients on a cardiorespiratory monitor.

Be guided by your local guidelines regarding further serum blood tests and testing of nasopharyngeal aspirate.

Learning Bite

Those infants identified as low risk require minimal investigating and no prolonged observation.

• ECG is to assess QT interval
• Capillary gas is to assess blood glucose, bicarbonate and lactate to evaluate for metabolic disease
• NPA is to assess for pertussis +/- RSV