Journal of North Khorasan

Background and Objective: Neonatal Sepsis is the most important disease in the first 28 days of life which is diagnosed definitely using the blood culture. The C-reactive protein test (CRP) is a simple method for the early diagnosis of sepsis, which is not so used. This study was conducted to determine the diagnostic value of this method in sepsis.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 100 newborns that were suspected of sepsis in Shahrood hospitals. Their quality CRP was measured using sepsis routine tests in the first 6, 24, and 48 hours of admission. The CRP≥1was considered as positive CRP.

Results: Most of the certain sepsis cases were among the new borns who were heavier than 2500 g (p <0.01). The gestational mean age was 8.3 ± 1.37 weeks, in this age group definite sepsis was significantly closer to the normal gestational age (p <0.02). Sixty one percentage of cases were full-term infants among them 78.6% were certain sepsis which was significantly different from the other age groups (p <0.007). There was a significant correlation between positive CRP and certain sepsis in the first, second and third testing steps. It was found that the sensitivity of this test is very high in 24 to 48 hours after the admission.

Conclusion: This study showed that the serumal CRP levels can be used as a quick and sensitive test, to approve or disapprove the certain sepsis especially in the first 24 to 48 hours of neonatal sepsis occurrence.