PLATELET TO LYMPHOCYTE RATIO IN NEONATES: A PREDICTOR OF EARLY ONSET NEONATAL SEPSIS

Abstract

Introduction Neonatal sepsis (NS) is a common systemic disease that causes morbidity and mortality in newborns. But there is no ideal biomarker that can be used in the early diagnosis of NS. In recent studies, platelet width to lymphocyte ratio (PLR)  have been reported to play a critical role in the inflammatory process. In this study, we aimed to contribute to the research about whether or not PLR can be used in the early diagnosis of NS. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted among the newborns whose born in İzmir Buca Maternity and Pediatric Hospital between March 2015-February 2016. During these twelve months, 611 neonates with EOS were admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit. One hundred and forty-nine neonates with  suspected EOS, 67 neonates with proven EOS and 92 healty neonates were enrolled in the study. Results Platelet width lymphocyte (LPR) values of the groups were calculated 56.5 ± 17.8 vs 62.4± 14.9 vs 15.3 ± 2.1 respectively. PLR values of suspected or proven EOS group was significantly higher than the control group. PLR has AUC 0.89 to 0.93, cutoff value of 39.5 to 57.7, sensitivity of 88.9% to 91.3% and specifity of 94.7% to 97.6%, positive predictive value of 94.3% to 97.4%, and negative predictive value of 88.6% to 91.8% in suspected and proven sepsis diagnosis. Conclusion Based on our results suggest that PLR can be used as a biomarker predictive of EOS.