Correlation of Gastric Aspirate Polymorphs And Acute Phase Reactants (M-Esr, Crp And Band Cell Count) With Blood Culture In Early onset Neonatal Sepsis – A Tertiary Care Study

Introduction: Mortality due to early onset neonatal sepsis is much higher than late onset sepsis. Clinical manifestations of the early onset sepsis are non specific. Delay in treatment can lead to complications and death of the neonates. Objective: To detect the sensitivity, specificity and the positive predictive values of the gastric aspirate polymorphs and the acute phase reactants in relation with the blood cultures of the neonates with early onset sepsis. Materials And Methods: Study was conducted at a tertiary care center. 50 neonates were included in the study. Investigations like blood culture, CRP, micro ESR, band cell count and gastric aspirate polymorphs count was done. All the observations were recorded. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and the negative predictive values were calculated based on the observations. Results: In the present it was seen that 41.02% of the cases of neonatal sepsis with GA polymorphs have a sensitivity of 72.72 %, and a positive predictive value of 41.02 % with blood culture. In regard to neonatal sepsis, m-ESR was found to be correlated with a sensitivity and specificity of 54.54% and 67.85 % respectively. In cases of neonatal sepsis, sensitivity and specificity of band forms and blood culture is 78.57% and 75% respectively. Conclusion: The present study concludes that CRP and Band forms are useful in the early detection of early neonatal sepsis as both have high sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values.