Significance of hematologic scoring of Rodwell and C-reactive protein in newborn with sepsis admitted to the Neonatal Out-born Intensive Care Unit

Sepsis in the newborn (NB) is one of the most severe pathologies among the NB hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). This article aims at describing the significance of the hematologic scoring of Rodwell and the C-reactive protein (CRP), besides the main clinical manifestations in 23 NB with sepsis admitted to the NICU. The most frequent clinical manifestations in the NB with sepsis were: fever, tachycardia and tachypnea (Bone et al. Criteria, 1991). In relation to the laboratory tests, the most significant one was the C-reactive protein (CRP), which presented sensitivity in relation to positive hemoculture of 92.8%, a specificity of 78%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 86.7% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 87.5%. The hematologic scoring of Rodwell presented values lower than CRP, but the combination of CRP/Rodwell in relation to positive hemoculture increased the significance obtaining the sensitivity values of 100%, specificity of 87.5%, PPV of 87.5% and NPV of 100%. We concluded that these fast and low cost tests when used in association in NB, who present suspicious manifestations of sepsis, are useful in the diagnosis of this severe disease.