Validity of C-reactive protein (CRP) for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis

Objective: to determine the validity of c-reactive protein levels for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. methods: a cross sectional (validation) study was conducted at neonatology unit in krl general hospital (emergency/opd) of 7 months duration from february 2012 to august 2012. by using purposive sampling technique, 147, sample size was calculated by using who sample size calculator taking sensitivity 75%, specificity 95%, expected prevalence 50%, desired precision 10% and confidence level 95%. results: mean age of the neonates was 5.72 days + 3.86. male patients were 81(55.1%) while 66(44.9%) were female. neonatal sepsis was observed in 43(29.25%) and were confirmed through blood culture while 104(70.75%) were not confirmed on blood culture as neonatal sepsis. the sensitivity and specificity of crp in diagnosis of acute neonatal sepsis was 76.92% and 53.49% respectively while it had a positive predictive value of 80% and negative predictive value of 48.94%. over all the diagnostic accuracy of crp in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis was 70.07%. conclusion: crp estimation does have a role in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis but the test is not specific enough to be relied upon as the only indicator.