A study of red cell distribution width and neonatal sepsis at Soba University Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan

Neonatal sepsis is one of the most critical illnesses in newborns with significant morbidity and mortality, particularly in developing countries. The present, cross-sectional, hospital-based, study was conducted to evaluate the association of red cell distribution width (RDW) with neonatal sepsis and its role as a predictive marker in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis at Soba University Hospital, during the period July 2018 to April 2019. The study population was term neonates, aged 1-28 days, who were diagnosed with neonatal sepsis, with positive blood culture. A total of 111 full-term neonates had blood culture proven neonatal sepsis and the majority of them (100%, 90%) had positive C-reactive protein (CRP). The average RDW in this study was 19.3% and was elevated in 103 (92%) of the study participants with a significant association with positive blood culture. The majority (65%, 58.6%) of mothers of the studied neonates did not have an illness during pregnancy, 19 (17.1%) had diabetes mellitus, 9 (8.1%) had hypertension, in addition to other different conditions in 18 (16.2%). The common causes of admission of the studied newborns included respiratory distress (70%, 79%), jaundice (33%, 29.7%) and lethargy (28%, 25.2%). Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism isolated from blood culture in 50 (45.0%) patients, and Escherichia coli was the least one, isolated in only one (0.9%) newborn. There is a significant association between positive blood culture, CRP and elevated RDW (p-value 0.01). RDW was found to be significantly elevated in the studied newborns with neonatal sepsis.