ROLE OF HEMATOLOGICAL SCORING SYSTEM IN DIAGNOSIS OF NEONATAL SEPSIS

Introduction: Neonatal sepsis is a clinical syndrome resulting from pathophysiologic effects of local and systemic infection in the 1st month of life. Septicemia usually consists of bacteremia with a constellation of signs and symptoms caused by microorganisms or their toxic products in the circulation. Neonatal sepsis was one of the common causes of neonatal mortality, contributing to 16% of all intramural deaths. Early diagnosis of neonatal septicemia is a vexing problem because of its nonspecific clinical picture. 

Method: This study was prospective observational study of 210 Cases received from August 2020 to August 2022 for Neonatal Sepsis. This prospective study was carried out in Department of Pathology of a tertiary care teaching hospital. The ethical permission has been obtained from Institutional Ethics Committee for conducting the study. Hemogram was obtained for each case using five part automated hematology analyser.

Result: Hematological scoring system was useful test in the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Diagnostic accuracy was 92.39% in this study,>=3 score was sensitive and >=4 score was specific for early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis

Conclusion: The HSS increases the diagnostic accuracy of the complete blood cell count as a screening test for sepsis and simplifies and standardizes its interpretation.