[Predictive value of acute phase reactants (APR)-score for perinatal infections]

For the early diagnosis of antepartum and intrapartum bacterial infection, we compared the predictive value of the APR-Score using C-reactive protein (CRP), Orosomucoid (Om) and Haptoglobin (Hp) in cord sera and neonatal blood samples, with the combination of many different screening techniques such as cord blood culturing, the determination of cord serum IgM and IgA, neonatal gastric aspirate culturing, polymorphonuclear leucocytes counting in gastric aspirate, and histological examination of cord. We found that among these screening techniques the APR-Score correlated best with the presence of infection. Sixty three per cent of clinically infected neonates were well diagnosed with cord blood APR scoring, and the APR-Score of all infected neonates had exceeded 1 point within the following 3 days. This study supports the theory that an elevated APR-Score can aid effectively in the early diagnosis of perinatal bacterial infection in the newborn infant.