[Nitroblue tetrazolium test. Neonatal infections and antibiotic therapy]

The authors report the results of a prospective test of NBT carried out by an original method already described, and now used for seventy newborn babies. Eleven of them (group I) were tested by simultaneously taken samples from the cord and the heel in the labour ward. The levels obtained according to the position from which the samples were taken showen no significant difference. In 59 other infants (group 2) three successive tests were carried out in the first two weeks of life. These results were classified according to whether the children were: infected, perhaps infected and non-infected. The results confirm correlations between raised levels and infections. Giving antibiotic therapy does not alter significantly the levels in non-infected babies, nor the high positive scores in infected babies that were revealed in the four days after the start of treatment. Following this delay, levels of infected babies' blood did drop significantly, which was a probable indication of the efficacy of the antibiotic therapy.