Résumé
Objectives: Early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and appropriate treatment decreases the mortality and morbidity of these infants. The aim of this study was to assess the role of procalcitonin [PCT] as a marker in the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis
Study design: 35 neonates with early onset sepsis [admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at El-Minia Children University Hospital [from August 2012 to August 2013] were included in the study. Another 35 healthy neonates with no clinical and biological data of infection were taken as control, they were subjected to thorough history taking, routine laboratory investigations and serum Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein [CRP] were determined by ELISA
Results: Mean levels of procalcitonin and CRP in neonates with sepsis were significantly higher than the control. There was a significant moderate positive correlation between procalcitonin and C-reactive protein and insignificant correlation between procalcitonin and total leukocytic count among the neonates with sepsis. Also procalcitonin had high sensitivity, specificity, high positive predictive value and high negative predictive value. PCT showed higher sensitivity in comparison to that of CRP
Conclusion: Procalcitonin is a sensitive, independent and useful biomarker than CRP in early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis