Abstract:

Objective To assess the clinical significance of serum procalcitonin(PCT) and high-sensitivity C reactive protein(hs-CRP) in neonatal pneumonia and sepsis patients, and to investigate the correlation of the levels of serum PCT and hs-CRP with the severity of neonatal sepsis. Methods A total of 216 neonatal pneumonia patients were enrolled and classified into 3 groups, including 119 cases of non-sepsis, 69 cases of mild sepsis and 28 cases of severe sepsis. The levels of serum PCT and hs-CRP were determined by immunofluorescence and turbidimetric method. By receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the diagnosis significances of PCT and hs-CRP for mild sepsis and severe sepsis with pneumonia were analyzed. Resutls PCT and hs-CRP levels in non-sepsis, mild sepsis and severe sepsis patients increased, and there was statistical significance (P<0.01). The areas under ROC curves of PCT and hs-CRP for the diagnosis of pneumonia with mild sepsis and severe sepsis were 0.853 and 0.772. PCT ≥ 2 ng/mL and hs-CRP ≥ 55 mg/L were optimal cut-off values for the diagnosis of pneumonia with severe sepsis, the sensitivities were 71.43% and 82.14%, and the specificities were 75.00% and 53.57%, respectively. If the combined determination was performed, the sensitivity and specificity were 89.29% and 85.71%. PCT and hs-CRP levels were statistically significant before and after the treatment for neonatal pneumonia and sepsis patients (P<0.05). Conclusions PCT and hs-CRP have high application significance to judge the neonatal pneumonia and sepsis severity, and PCT can reflect the sepsis more clearly than hs-CRP. The combined determination of PCT and hs-CRP has high significance for the early diagnosis, observation of curative effect and prognosis on neonatal pneumonia and sepsis.

Key words: Procalcitonin, High-sensitivity C reactive protein, Neonatal pneumonia, Sepsis