Table 1.

Demographics and clinical characteristics of the derivation and validation cohorts.¹

	Derivation Cohort	Validation Cohort	P value
No. of patients	98	82	--
Median age in years (IQR)2	2.2 (1.0–5.0)	2.4 (0.8–6.5)	0.860
No. of males/females	52/46	57/25	0.036
No. of deaths (%)	18 (18)	12 (15)	0.639
Maximum # of organ failures (IQR) 3	2 (2–3)	2 (2–3)	0.859
Median PRISM score (IQR)	16 (11–21)	14 (9–19)	0.081
No. with co-morbidity (%)4	41 (42)	33 (40)	0.949
No. with immune suppression (%)5	23 (23)	7 (8)	0.013
No. receiving hydrocortisone (%)6	35 (36)	34 (42)	0.525
No. with gram pos. bacteria (%)7	23 (23)	24 (29)	0.477
No. with gram neg. bacteria (%)	20 (20)	26 (32)	0.119
No. with negative cultures (%)	45 (46)	25 (30)	0.050
Median WBC count × 103/mm3 (IQR)	13 (4–20)	14 (7–18)	0.446
Median neutrophil count × 103/mm3 (IQR)	7 (3–13)	10 (4–16)	0.110
Median lymphocyte count × 103/mm3 (IQR)	1.7 (0.8–3.1)	2.1 (0.9–3.8)	0.605
Median monocyte count × 103/mm3 (IQR)	0.5 (0.2–1.3)	0.5 (0.3–1.0)	0.878

¹Continuous variables are analyzed by ANOVA on Ranks, and proportions are analyzed by Chi-square.

²Interquartile range (IQR).

³Refers to the maximum number of organ failures during the initial 7 days of PICU admission.

⁴Refers to patients having any major diagnosis in addition to septic shock (e.g. trauma, sickle cell disease, congenital heart disease, liver failure, etc.)

⁵Refers to patients with immune deficiency secondary to an intrinsic documented defect of the immune system, or patients receiving immune-suppressive medications (e.g. calcineurin inhibitors or high dose corticosteroids).

⁶For cardiovascular shock.

⁷All bacterial culture data refer to samples obtained from bodily fluids that are normally sterile (i.e. blood, urine, cerebral spinal fluid, broncho-alveolar lavage, and / or peritoneal fluid).