Evaluation of CD11b Expression on Peripheral Blood Neutrophils for Early Detection of Neonatal Sepsis

Neonatal sepsis is a disease of infants who are less than 1 month of age. these infants are clinicallyill, and their blood culture are positive for bacteria. the reported incidence of neonatal sepsis for allinfants is 1 to 10 per 1000 live births. the mortality rate is 4.2-26%. the clinical signs are not specificand diagnosis of neonatal sepsis is one of the most difficult tasks in clinical medicine. the aim of thiswork was determination of cd11b sensitivity and specificity for early detection of neonatal sepsis.we studied 65 neonates with gestational age of 27 to 38 weeks who were suspected for sepsis withinthe 28 days of life. whole blood was obtained from neonates to determine cd11b expression onperipheral blood neutrophils by flow cytometry. c-reactive protein (crp) was measured qualitatively.neonates were divided into two groups. classification was based on the result of the blood culture.in the sepsis group all of the neonates (n = 8) showed positive blood culture and clinicalsymptoms. in the suspected group (n = 57) the neonates showed clinical signs but blood cultures werenegative. sensitivity and specificity of cd11b were 75%, 100% respectively. also positive andnegative predictive values of cd11b were 100% and 86% respectively.results of present study and previous studies showed that measurement of neutrophil surfacemarkers can be useful for diagnosis of infection in the early phases. also, the quantitativemeasurement of crp in addition to cd11b further enhances the ability to diagnose infections andimproves sensitivity and negative predictive value by 100%.