Current Pediatric Research

Introduction: Neonatal septicemia is a major reason which may lead to an increase in mortality so if diagnosis is made in time and proper management done, it may help in providing adequate antibiotic coverage and preventing the morbidity and mortality of babies. Aim and objective: The primary objective of this study was to find the prevalence of thrombocytopenia, Mean Platelet Volume (MPV), Platelet Distribution Width (PDW) and plateletcrit among the cases of culture positive and culture negative sepsis. Materials and methods: A hospital based observational study was conducted during the period from October 2017-August 2019 in NICU. A total of 208 neonates were taken and were divided into cases having culture proven sepsis (n=57), probable sepsis (n=47) who met the inclusion criteria along with normal healthy controls (n=104) which were comparable to the study group. All of neonates were subjected to detailed history including maternal history and signs and symptoms of sepsis. Blood investigation for complete blood count including platelet indices and blood culture were sent. Neonates born <34 weeks and those born with congenital anomalies were excluded from the study. Result: Among the cases 57 (54.8%) neonates had culture proven sepsis. Thrombocytopenia was seen in 76.9% of cases. Among cases 34 (32.7%) neonates expired. Platelet counts were low in culture proven cases (p<0.01) with similarly significant results in MPV (p<0.01), PDW (p<0.01) and plateletcrit (p<0.01). Most common organism isolated in sepsis was Klebsiella pneumonia (35%). Conclusion: Thrombocytopenia is a common complication associated with neonatal sepsis having a higher mortality rate. MPV is also a reliable markers along with PCT. PDW can also be added as an additional tools to detect early onset septicemia.

Author(s): S Manazir Ali*, Saba Samreen, Uzma Firdaus, S H Arif

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