Diagnostic informativeness of procalcitonin levels in blood serum of newborns with early neonatal sepsis
The article presents data of testing 79 newborn infants of various gestational age with early neonatal sepsis and 30 healthy newborns for procalcitonin (PCT). It was found that the PCT level in the blood serum of healthy full-term newborns on the 3-4th day of life was 0.11 ± 0.04 ng/ml and did not exceed 0.5 ng/ml, and at 34-36 weeks of gestation it was 0.28 ± 0.09 ng/ml. The diagnostic sensitivity of elevated serum PCT above 2 ng/ml in early neonatal sepsis in infants of 25-40 weeks of gestation who did not receive dexamethasone antenatally was 81.8 %, the specificity - 96.7 %, the prognostic value of the positive result - 90 %, the prognostic value of the negative result - 93 %. We found that dexamethasone therapy brought about a reliable decrease of PCT level in blood serum, which might result in misinterpretation of the results of the test in sepsis. No influence of fresh-frozen plasma on the PCT level was noted. Infants with extremely low body weight in early neonatal sepsis are capable of producing high concentrations of PCT, just as more mature newborns.