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Updated: May 3, 2026
A Neonatal Imaging Model of Gram-Negative Bacterial Sepsis
Published on: August 12, 2020
Neutrophil CD64 as a diagnostic marker of sepsis in neonates
Sanaa Elawady1, Shahira K Botros, Ashraf E Sorour
1From the Departments of *Clinical Pathology, †Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and ‡Paediatrics, Cairo University, and Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
Background:
Sepsis in neonates hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit is a global problem and is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality. Neutrophil surface CD64, the high-affinity Fc receptor, is quantitatively up-regulated during infection and sepsis.
Objective:
Our goal in this prospective study was to measure the neutrophil CD64 in blood as an adjunct to our previously validated hematologic scoring system for detecting neonatal sepsis.
Methods:
A prospective study enrolled newborns with documented sepsis (n = 25), clinical sepsis (n = 25), and control newborns (n = 25). C-reactive protein, neutrophil CD64, complete blood counts, and blood cultures were taken. Neutrophil CD64 was analyzed by flow cytometry.
Results:
CD64 was significantly elevated in the groups with documented and clinical sepsis (P < 0.001). CD64 had a sensitivity of 96%, a specificity of 100%, a positive predictive value of 96.2%, and a negative predictive value of 100% with a cutoff value of 45.8% and 46.0% in the confirmed and the clinical sepsis groups, respectively.
Conclusions:
CD64 expression on neutrophils increases significantly in neonates with sepsis and can be considered a useful diagnostic marker for early diagnosis of neonatal infection as a single determination compared with other inflammatory markers.
