Serum procalcitonin: clinical value in diagnosis of neonatal septicemia

Objective To study the clinical value of serum procalcitonin concentration in the diagnosis of the neonatal septicemia.Methods Neonates with ages from 72 hours to 28 days whose course of disease were in 48h and who had not been improved with antibiotics were collected.The study population were assigned four groups(the contrast group,the local infection group,the septicemia group and the septicemia combined with severe complications group) according to the diagnostic criteria of septicemia.The blood samples were collected from study population at the time point which had been designed.The serum concentration of PCT and hsCRP,blood culture and blood cell count were then measured.The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis.Results 76 neonates were assigned(20 in the contrast group,15 in the local infection group,29 in the septicemia group and 12 in the septicemia combined with severe complications group).Procalcitonin(PCT) is a better diagnostic marker with higher sensitivity(82.9%),specificity(97.1%),positive predict value(82.9%)and negative predict value(97.1%) compared with C-reactive-protein(hsCRP)(80.4%,88.6%,89.2%,79.9%).The correlation of PCT with the severe degree of septicemia is stronger than that of hsCRP with the severe degree of septicemia(rPCT=0.859,rhsCRP=0.782).The change of serum PCT concentration correlates with clinical change of septicemia compared with that of hsCRP(P0.05).Conclusions PCT as a laboratory marker in the diagnosis of neonatal septicemia contributes to the clinical diagnosis and treatment of neonatal septicemia.