C-reactive protein as a diagnostic marker of neonatal sepsis in association with blood culture a retrospective study at a tertiary care hospital

Authors : Anshu Singhal, Ruchi Rati, Namita Jaggi

DOI : 10.18231/j.ijmr.2021.059

Volume : 8

Issue : 4

Year : 2021

Page No : 291-296

Introduction: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of C-Reactive protein as a single diagnostic inflammatory biomarker of neonatal sepsis in association with the blood culture.
Material and Methods: In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 330 neonates at a tertiary care hospital at Gurugram from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2020. The study population included neonates <1month> Results: Of the 330 neonates screened for sepsis, 32 (10%) had a positive blood culture with raised CRP in 69 (21%) cases. Among the 32 cases with positive blood culture, CRP identified 29 cases. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive values of CRP were 90.6%, 86.5%, 42% and 99% respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) for the CRP ROC analysis was 0.83 with sensitivity of 90.6% and specificity of 91.6% which showed CRP usefulness as the diagnostic inflammatory biomarker of neonatal sepsis.
Results: Prematurity (53%) in neonates was the most common risk factor associated with neonatal sepsis. Klebsiella pneumoniae 11 (34%) was the most common pathogen isolated with 73% susceptibility to Ciprofloxacin.
Conclusion: C-Reactive protein was found to have a high diagnostic value in terms of sensitivity of 90.6% and specificity of 91.6% when 0.83 is used as a cut off point for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Therefore, CRP could be used as diagnostic inflammatory biomarker in resource poor settings.
 

Keywords: C-Reactive protein, Neonates, Sepsis.


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