Early diagnosis of sepsis in the preterm neonate
Stabile, A.; Pastore, M.; Romanelli, V.; Miceli, S.S.; Flamini, G.; Pesaresi, A.
La Pediatria Medica e Chirurgica Medical and Surgical Pediatrics 9(5): 565-567
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0391-5387 PMID: 3441433 Document Number: 290871
The usefulness of the neutrophil blood cell count, the ratio of band forms to total neutrophils, the platelet count, the quantitative determination of serum IgM, C-reactive protein, alpha-1-acid glycoprotein and haptoglobin for the early identification of the serious neonatal infections was evaluated in 70 preterm newborns: 15 with sepsis, 2 with serious infections, 53 without infections. None of these tests has proved sensitive and predictive enough to be used as a single measure. The combination of 2 or more of them had improve the sensitivity (76.4%) and the predictive value of negative test (91.6%). The authors suggest that the greatest potential value of the tests is to exclude infections, with a more than 90% probability, if they are negative.