Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Evaluation of diagnostic value of procalcitonin as a marker of neonatal bacterial infections.
Evaluation of diagnostic value of procalcitonin as a marker of neonatal bacterial infections.
2012
Source
Pathology department, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
Abstract
KEYWORDS: Infection, Newborn, Predictive Value of Tests, Procalcitonin, Sensitivity, Specificity
OBJECTIVE:
This study tried to assess sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of procalcitonin for diagnosis of neonatal bacterial infections.
METHODS:
This prospective cross sectional study was carried out during an 18-month period in NICU and neonatal wards of Besat Hospital in Hamedan province, Iran. 39 symptomatic infants with clinical and laboratory findings in favor of bacterialinfection with a positive blood, CSF, and/or supra pubic urine culture entered the study; 32 newborns without any bacterialinfection served as control group. Quantitative procalcitonin level ≥0.5 ng/ml was accepted as pathological. Finally sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for procalcitonin test.
FINDINGS:
20 blood cultures, 17 urine cultures and 8 CSF cultures were positive. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for procalcitonin test was 76.9%, 100%, 100% and 78% respectively. Diagnostic value of procalcitonin test in accordance with blood culture for mentioned items was 85%, 100%, 100% and 91.4% respectively. Its diagnostic value according to urine culture was: sensitivity 70.6%, specificity 100%, PPV 100% and NPV 86.4%, and according to CSF culture was: sensitivity 75%, specificity 100%, PPV 100% and NPV 94.1% respectively.
CONCLUSION:
The results show that the procalcitonin test has high sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for diagnosis of neonatal infections.
Labels: blood cultures, Infection, newborn, Predictive Value of Tests, Procalcitonin, Sensitivity, Specificity, urine cultures
# posted by Pat O'Connor @ 7:57 AM 
