[Usefulness of C-reactive protein for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis]

With the object to determine the utility of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. We proceeded to create the prospective study of cases and controls of newborn included in the study of neonatal sepsis in the Instituto Nacional de Perinatologia. We measured the seric CRP in samples obtained by capillary punction simultaneously with blood culture and/or CSF culture, for bacterial infection criteria. We included 64 newborn divided in two groups: 42 patients were not infected and 22 cases had positive cultures. The results in the uninfected newborn group of CRP were negative to positive dilutions 1:32; with the newborn infected the CRP had values of 1:32 to 1:2048. The probability to find values equal or major to 1:32 in the infected newborn with positive cultures the CRP have values of sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 93% to get this values. We accept that the CRP could be used systematically for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis, being a simple procedure and accessible for use in the newborn with sepsis suspicion.