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WithdrawnNCT01825421Updated Mar 30, 2020

A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial for Antibiotic Exposure in Neonatal Sepsis Using Neutrophil CD64

An interventional study of Intervention is to stop antibiotics at 24h . in Neonatal Early-onset Sepsis and Neonatal Late-onset Sepsis, sponsored by Yale University. Withdrawn at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 1 Hour to 5 Months. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-03-30.

Sponsored by Yale University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was withdrawn
No funding obtained
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
0
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
1 Hour to 5 Months
Sex
All
01

Study summary

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.

02

Conditions studied

  • Neonatal Early-onset Sepsis
  • Neonatal Late-onset Sepsis

Keywords

  • Infant
  • Infection
  • Newborn
  • Antibiotics
  • Neutrophil CD64
  • Blood Culture
03

In context

Neonatal Sepsis

186 studies on the registry are indexed under Neonatal Sepsis; 42 are open to participants now.

Browse Neonatal Sepsis studies →

Lead sponsor

Yale University is the lead sponsor of 1,763 studies on the registry; 292 are open to participants now.

Of its 217 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 128 (59%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
1 Hour to 5 Months
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Infants undergoing a sepsis evaluation in the NICU

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • They have a major life-threatening congenital malformation
  • The attending neonatologist has objections to the infant participating in the study
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
0 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • 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.

  • 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.

    Other: Intervention is to stop antibiotics at 24h .

Interventions

  • OtherIntervention is to stop antibiotics at 24h .

    Stoppage of antibiotics at 24h in the intervention arm, randomization based on neutrophil CD64 values.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. 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.

Secondary outcomes

  1. 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.

Other outcomes

  1. Number of positive blood cultures in neonates from 24h to 48h with/without exposure to antibiotics.

    Time frame: At 48h after initiation of antibiotics.

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital NICU
    New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 30, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01825421
Lead sponsor
Yale University
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 5, 2013
Start date
Oct 2014
Primary completion
Jan 2016 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 2016 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 30, 2020

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is withdrawn, as verified in Jul 2015. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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