A Panel of Biomarkers in Diagnosing Late-onset Neonatal Sepsis and Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Sibu Hospital

The diagnosis of neonatal sepsis is challenging especially the very low birth weight infants as the signs and symptoms of sepsis are nonspecific and can be attributed to non-infected aetiologies including exacerbation of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, apnoea of prematurity and gastroesophageal reflux. Blood culture remains the gold standard for diagnosing septicaemia (either bacteremia or fungemia). However, its effectiveness in the population of preterm infants is compromised.Given the dire consequences of not treating the sepsis early, clinicians tend to have a low threshold for treatment. This leads to overuse of antimicrobials, promotion of antimicrobial resistance, exposure of infants to avoidable side effects from the antimicrobial treatment, prolonged hospitalisation and increased healthcare costs. Hence, there is a need for a clearly defined algorithm for diagnosing LONS and NEC. This study aims to examine the diagnostic utilities of a panel of sepsis biomarkers and explore if they can be incorporated into a diagnostic algorithm which hopefully, can be translated into clinical practice in the future.