El Taher, S., El-sayed, H., Omran, A., Abdallah, M. (2023). Assessment of Salivary versus Serum Procalcitonin Level in Diagnosis of Late Onset Neonatal Sepsis in Preterm Neonates. Suez Canal University Medical Journal, 26(9), 0-0. doi: 10.21608/scumj.2023.324268
Samar M. El Taher; Hesham F. El-sayed; Ahmed G. Omran; Mohamed O. Abdallah. "Assessment of Salivary versus Serum Procalcitonin Level in Diagnosis of Late Onset Neonatal Sepsis in Preterm Neonates". Suez Canal University Medical Journal, 26, 9, 2023, 0-0. doi: 10.21608/scumj.2023.324268
El Taher, S., El-sayed, H., Omran, A., Abdallah, M. (2023). 'Assessment of Salivary versus Serum Procalcitonin Level in Diagnosis of Late Onset Neonatal Sepsis in Preterm Neonates', Suez Canal University Medical Journal, 26(9), pp. 0-0. doi: 10.21608/scumj.2023.324268
El Taher, S., El-sayed, H., Omran, A., Abdallah, M. Assessment of Salivary versus Serum Procalcitonin Level in Diagnosis of Late Onset Neonatal Sepsis in Preterm Neonates. Suez Canal University Medical Journal, 2023; 26(9): 0-0. doi: 10.21608/scumj.2023.324268
Assessment of Salivary versus Serum Procalcitonin Level in Diagnosis of Late Onset Neonatal Sepsis in Preterm Neonates
1Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt.
2Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt.
Abstract
Background:Neonatal sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Egypt. Early diagnosis and effective treatment are the best ways to reduce morbidity and mortality.Procalcitonin is helpful for the early detection of sepsis as well as for monitoring the antimicrobial treatment regimen, it can be a useful tool for antimicrobial stewardship and its utilization may safely lead to a significant reduction of unnecessary administration of antimicrobial therapy. Aim:To investigate the applicability of salivary and serum procalcitonin for early diagnosis of late-onset preterm neonatal sepsis in preterm neonates. Subjects and Methods:This case-control study was conducted at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Suez Canal University Hospital. Seventy participants were enrolled in our study and assigned to the septic group: including 35 preterm neonates (less than 37 weeks gestational age) with late-onset sepsis, and 35 control groups including age and sex matched healthy preterm neonates. All preterm neonates were subjected tocomplete history taking from parents, clinical data and examination, laboratory investigations of complete blood count (CBC), C reactive protein (CRP), and blood culture, and serum and salivary procalcitonin level assessment. Results:Neonates with suspected clinical late-onset sepsis were found to have significantly higher serum procalcitonin (2.52 ± 1.64 ng/mL) than healthy controls (0.29 ± 0.09) (p < 0.001). Moreover, neonates with suspected clinical late-onset sepsis were found to have significantly higher salivary procalcitonin (3.14 ± 1.81 ng/mL) than healthy controls (0.34 ± 0.059 ng/mL) (p < 0.001). Serum procalcitonin value of 0.935 ng/ml or higher, salivary procalcitonin value of 0.455 ng/ml or higher, and TLC value of 11.7 ng/ml or higher were found to be the best cut-off point to predict the incidence of neonatal sepsis among neonates. Conclusion:Serum procalcitonin practically could be better than Salivary procalcitonin in early diagnosis of late-onset preterm neonatal sepsis in preterm neonates.