Background: One of the leading causes of newborn death and morbidity is still neonatal sepsis. This occurs despite the use of extremely powerful antibiotics and improvements in prenatal and neonatal care. For infants with infections, however, early detection and treatment improve survival.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic utility of serum intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) with other, more well-established methods such as blood culture and c-reactive protein (CRP) for neonatal septicemia.
Patients and methods:
Seventy newborns were split into two groups for our study: Group (A): Fifty full-term and preterm neonates with septicemia. Group (B): As controls, healthy preterm and full-term newborns. In our study, blood cultures were taken as soon as feasible following NICU admission, and the findings indicated that 45 (90%) of sepsis cases had culture-proven sepsis.
Results:
According to our research, group A (the septicaemic group) had greater circulating levels of sICAM-1 than group B (the controls). As a test for early diagnosis of newborn septicemia, sICAM-1 demonstrated 70% sensitivity and 90% specificity at a cut-off value of 147ng/ml in our investigation. In contrast to early-onset sepsis, our study found that s-ICAM-1 was elevated in late-onset sepsis. Poor eating was the most common symptom in the patient groups in our study then trouble breathing and insufficient perfusion.
Conclusion:
We propose that sICAM-1 serum levels are raised during infections and can serve as a neonatal septicemia diagnostic marker.