Introduction:

Sepsis is a cause of high mortality in the premature, it affects up to 19 of 1000 in children under 1000 g and its manifestation may be nonspecific. Decision-making on the use of antibiotics is not always easy, so it is worth having an fast, cheap and effective predictor of early onset sepsis.

Objective:

To determine the use of serum procalcitonin umbilical cord as a predictor of early onset sepsis in preterm infants.

Materials and methods:

Longitudinal descriptive study from june to november 2016 was made. 22 preterm infants (<37 weeks of gestation) were included, with or without risk factors for infection. Neonates with malformations or suspicion of metabolic disease were excluded. A blood sample was taken from the umbilical artery for procalcitonin and blood culture at birth, subsequently they were assessed from birth to 72 hours of life for sepsis data.

Results:

Twelve developed early onset sepsis and ten did not. The mean procalcitonin of umbilical cord in the sepsis group was 0.68 ng/ml versus 0.13 ng/ml in the group without sepsis, p=0.025. In the analysis under the ROC curve area for procalcitonin was 0.75. The cut value of umbilical cord procalciton was 0.14 ng/ml as a predictor of early sepsis (sensitivity 75%, specificity 70%, positive predictive value 75%, negative predictive value 70%).

Conclusions:

Procalcitonin of umbilical cord at birth may be a useful parameter as a marker of early onset sepsis in the premature, however these results must be validated with a larger sample size. MÉD.UIS. 2018;31(1):23-30.

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