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Updated: May 19, 2026
A Neonatal Imaging Model of Gram-Negative Bacterial Sepsis
Published on: August 12, 2020
Procalcitonin in detecting neonatal nosocomial sepsis
Cinzia Auriti1, Ersilia Fiscarelli, Maria Paola Ronchetti
1Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Piazza S Onofrio, 4-00165 Rome, Italy. c.auriti@agtgroup.it
Objective:
To investigate the accuracy of procalcitonin (PCT) as a diagnostic marker of nosocomial sepsis (NS) and define the most accurate cut-off to distinguish infected from uninfected neonates.
Setting:
Six neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
Patients:
762 neonates admitted to six NICUs during a 28-month observational study for whom at least one serum sample was taken on admission.
Main Outcome Measures:
Positive and negative predictive values at different PCT cut-off levels.
Results:
The overall probability of an NS was doubled or more if PCT was >0.5 ng/ml. In very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants, a cut-off of >2.4 ng/ml gave a positive predictive value of NS near to 50% with a probability of a false-positive diagnosis of NS in about 10% of the patients.
Conclusions:
In VLBW neonates, a serum PCT value >2.4 ng/ml prompts early empirical antibiotic therapy, while in normal-birth-weight infants, a PCT value ≤2.4 ng/ml carries a low risk of missing an NS.
