Abstract
There have been no reliable test for early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Recently, C-reactive Protein (CRP) could be determined with much higher sensitivity and precision.
We expected that one of the sensitive CRP tests (LPIA: Latex Photometric Immunoassay with near infrared turbidimetry) could be an useful tool for the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.
We measured CRP in 33 cases; 35 episodes of neonatal sepsis finally diagnosed by blood culture and clinical findings. We evaluate the following three criteria for the sensitivity and specificity after measurement of CRP in matched control group (21 cases; 25 episodes). In this evaluation, the CRP value was taken at the time when the blood with positive culture was collected.
Criterion III that caught an increasing pattern of CRP by measuring serially, ratio to the previous CRP value above 1.2, was found to have a better result of the sensitivity and specificity, 100% and 92%, respectively than criterion I and II being above any cut off value. We recommended that CRP should be serially determined at 5 to 12h interval for the neonates suspected of sepsis. It was established from these results that the serial measurement of high sensitive CRP quantitation is the most reliable method for early diagnosis and management of neonatal sepsis.
