Thyroid hormones as a marker to diagnose the severity of fungal sepsis in neonates

ABSTRACT

Background: Sepsis due to fungi in the neonatal period occurs in infants admitted to the ICU for long periods of time, especially affecting infants with a birth weight <1500 g. In this case series thyroid insufficiencies have been used as a marker to diagnose the severity of fungal sepsis and outcome of those babies. Objectives of this study was to describe thyroid hormone variations in new-borns with fungal sepsis and to find the correlation between thyroid hormone deficiency and severity of fungal sepsisMethods: It is a prospective observational study of 100 infants done in Sree Balaji Medical College, chrompet. Thyroid profile was done to all patients. Patients with Low T3 syndrome and Low T3, T4 syndrome were divided into group A and B and statistical analysis was done to find the correlation between thyroid insufficiency and severity of the fungal sepsis.Results: Significant correlation was noted between low T3, low T4 levels and fungal sepsis.Conclusions: Thyroid insufficiency, with the variables described, could be a marker of disease severity with the possible need for hormone supplementation to decrease the mortality.