By : Omar A. K. Al-azaowi¹, Samir A. Abd El-kaream², Gihan Hosny¹*

¹Environmental Health Division, Dept. of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies & Research, Alexandria University, Egypt.

²Dept. of Applied Medical Chemistry, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Egypt.

Abstract

Background : Sepsis is the most common cause of neonatal mortality. Isolation of bacteria from blood is the most specific and standard method used to diagnose neonatal sepsis. The drawback of culture-based diagnosis is the 24–48 hour assay time. Procalcitonin (PCT) has high specificity and positive predictive values. Thus, the current study was undertaken to investigate the released serum-procalcitonin as a biomarker for predicting neonatal sepsis among newly born infants.  Subjects and Methods: A case-control study design was set in order to perform the underlying work. Forty five neonates were included in this study. Blood samples were collected and processed for laboratory investigations and culture.  Laboratory investigations included complete blood picture, blood culture and PCT. Results: Positive blood cultures were detected in all cases of confirmed sepsis group (100%) and in 66.66% of cases of suspected sepsis group. The ROC curve analysis, used to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum procalcitonin depending on the area under the curves (AUC), showed very high AUC (91.7%) corresponds to a better diagnostic test. The optimum cut off value of PCT (<0.05 ng/ml) was with a corresponding sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 83.33%, a positive predictive value (100%), and a negative predictive value (74.99%). Conclusion: The current findings showed high sensitivity and specificity of PCT test for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. The results so far are very encouraging and may suggest that in the near future the PCT may be used routinely for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and can provide a life-saving approach for newborns.

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