Usefulness of Urinary Immune Biomarkers in the Evaluation of Neonatal Sepsis

Abstract

Objective. Our hypothesis is that specific proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory urinary cytokines are useful in the diagnostic evaluation of risk for sepsis in term neonates. We conducted a pilot, prospective hospital-based longitudinal observational study to test the urine of term neonates with a 13 biomarker panel of cytokines. Methods. Infants were divided into 2 groups: The control group (n = 15) consisted of infants admitted to newborn nursery, and the test group (n = 15) consisted of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for presumed sepsis. Bagged urine samples were collected from 30 term neonates for testing our hypothesis. Results. Urinary interleukin (IL)-8 ( P = .004*), inducible protein (IP)-10 ( P = .007*), and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 ( P = .02) were significantly increased in the test group compared with the control group. Conclusions. Urinary IL-8, IP-10, and MCP-1 are proinflammatory cytokines that are increased in the neonate during an infectious inflammatory process. These may be useful predictors as an adjunct to the current protocols to recognize neonatal sepsis.