Evaluation of the Diagnostic Value of Peripheral Blood Parameters for Neonatal Pneumonia

To evaluate the diagnostic value of peripheral blood parameters including white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, platelet, mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), red cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and platelet-to-neutrophil ratio (PNR) for neonatal pneumonia.

Two hundred and six full-term neonates in our hospital from January 2018 to December 2019 were enrolled, including 73 pneumonic neonates and 133 health controls. Peripheral blood parameters were measured by an automatic blood cell analyzer. While C-reactive protein (CRP) and PCT concentrations were detected by electrochemical luminescence assay. Clinical signs, characteristic population, temperature, and chest radiograph findings were recorded. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the cutoff values and analyze the diagnosis significances for neonatal pneumonia.

This study showed that WBC, neutrophil, RDW, NLR, and MLR levels in the pneumonic group were higher than that of the control group, whereas lymphocyte, monocyte, platelet, and PNR levels were lower (p < 0.05). The ROC curve result showed that NLR and PNR owned higher AUC values than the rest of peripheral blood variables. At a cutoff value 2.581, NLR exhibited 63.01% sensitivity, 90.98% specificity, and 0.847 area under ROC curve (AUC). In addition, at a cutoff value 52.77, PNR showed 84.93% sensitivity, 78.95% specificity, and 0.856 AUC.

This study clarifies that peripheral blood parameter of NLR and PNR have good applied value in diagnosis neonatal pneumonia with high sensitivity and specificity.