Assessment of a score's performance in predicting positive culture studies in preterm neonates with clinical suspicion of sepsis.

The goal of this study is to assess the use of a score composed of markers of inflammation and organ failure to predict positive cultures for preterm newborns with clinical suspicion of late-onset sepsis. The score was calculated at the first suspicion and 24-48 hours later. We retrospectively compared score results between neonates with positive and negative cultures. Neonates with positive cultures had a significantly higher score at the second instance; the receiver operator characteristics curve presented an area under the curve of 0.798 (p=0.007). A score for early prediction of sepsis could be an important tool for prognostic improvement in the future.