All issues > Volume 26(9); 1983

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1983;26(9):866-871. Published online September 30, 1983.

Clinical Study of C-Reactive Protein in Neonatal Bacterial Infections.

Kyung Shin Kim¹, Myung Sung Moon¹, Jin Choi¹, Keun Soo Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics，College of Medicine，Hanyang University

Abstract

Bacterial infections, such as sepsis, meningitis, pneumonia and urinary tract infection are frequent causes of death during neonatal period. Further more clinical symptoms of neonatal infections are often quite vague and the illnesses unexpectedly progress rapidly. The causative organisms are detected with difficulty in many instances. Therefore a quick, simple and.reliable laboratory test is obviously needed for easy recognization of neonatal bacterial infections in order to start early antimicrobial therapy. In recent years, several authors have reported the usefulness of CRP in the early detectioa of neonatal infection. The author conducted a prospective study of CRP in neonatal cases with various bacterial infections at the Hanyang University Hospital during the period from. March 1980 to September 1981, The results obtained were as follows. 1) Among 100 cases, 76 cases were male and all were under 1 month of age. 2) Among 100 cases, bacterial infections outnumbered, eg, sepsis: 20 cases, pneumonia:11 cases, gastroenteritis: 10 cases, omphalitis: 7 cases, neonatal tetanus: 6 cases, infection suspected but site undetermind: 26 cases. 3) The CRP positive prevalance rate in order of frequency were sepsis(90%), urinary tract infection(75%), meningtis(71.4%), pneumonia(63.6%), gastroenteritis(50%). 4) Among 20 sepsis cases, CRP positive prevalance rate(90%) were obviously higher than the other laboratory data of WBC(<5,000/cumm or>20,000/cumm: 50%), Band/neutrophil ratio(≥0.2: 45%), ESR(≥15mm: 45%). 5) Among 80 cases of other various infectious disease, CRP positive prevalance rate was also higher than the other laboratory data of WBC, Band/neutrophil ratio, ESR. 6) These data suggested positive CRP in the neonatal infections was a quite reliable indicator of bacterial infections to be initiated early antibiotic treatment

Keywords :C-reactive protein; Neonatal bacterial infections.