ABSTRACT
Background: Neonatal sepsis is characterized by systemic signs and symptoms of generalised bacterial infection in the first four weeks of life. Early recognition and diagnosis of neonatal sepsis remains a challenge because of the variable and nonspecific clinical presentation. A combination of haematological and biochemical tests may provide a more rapid diagnosis of sepsis than blood culture which takes at least 24 to 48 hours for the results. Objectives: To study the correlation of parameters of sepsis screen with blood culture in neonates with clinical sepsis and or having significant risk factors for sepsis and To study the outcome of neonatal sepsis was our secondary aim.Material & Methods:The descriptive prospective study with cross sectional design was conducted on 100 neonates admitted with signs and symptoms of sepsis in the nursery ward and NICU of paediatric department of BebeNanki Hospital, GMC, Amritsar. Sepsis screen and blood culture (gold standard for neonatal sepsis diagnosis) and other relevant investigations were sent under strict aseptic conditions and treatment was started. S.CRP levels >1mg/dl, total leukocyte count < 5000 cells/cumm, platelets count < 1.5 lakhs/ µL were taken as positive significant (P <0.005) markers for neonatal sepsis. The data was tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis.Results:Positive CRP (>1mg/dl) were found to be highly significant (p<0.0001), Sensitivity, Specificity, PPV, NPV and Diagnostic accuracy were 93.33%,16.00%,76.92%,44.44% and 74.00% respectively. TLC <5000 were found to be significant (p<0.0001), Sensitivity, Specificity, PPV, NPV and Diagnostic accuracy were 65.33%,44.00%,77.78 %,29.73% and 60.00% respectively. Platelet count < 1.5 lakhs/ µL was found to be significant (p<0.0091), Sensitivity, Specificity, PPV, NPV and Diagnostic accuracy were 68.00%, 16.00%,70.83%,14.29% and 55.00% respectively.Conclusions:In developing countries like India, where blood culture investigations are limited, altered haematological parameters such as CRP, TLC, and Platelets counts can serve as quick, simple, economical methods to diagnose neonatal sepsis. Further studies with larger sample size are required to substantiate the results.