Serum hepcidin level as a diagnostic marker in late onset neonatal sepsis / Hend Mostafa Ahmed ; Supervised Olfat Gamil Shaker , Nabila Abdelaziz Elithy , Fatma Mohamed Taha

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Medical Biochemistry

Neonatal sepsis is a clinical syndrome characterized by systemic signs of circulatory compromise caused by invasion of the blood stream by bacteria in the first month of life. The aim of the present work was to assess the diagnostic value of serum hepcidin as a marker in late onset neonatal sepsis and to compare the diagnostic values of hepcidin with interleukin-6which is a well- established marker of neonatal sepsis in predicting late onset neonatal sepsis. The present study included 2 main groups: infected group (group I) 55% males and 45% females while non-infected control group (group II) 57.5% males and 42.5% females. All groups were subjected to measurement of hepcidin and interleukin-6 (IL-6) by ELISA technique in addition to various laboratory investigations diagnosing neonatal sepsis and all parameters of infection as: red blood cells, hemoglobin, white blood cells, hematocrit, immature to total neutrophil ratio, platelets, and C-reactive protein (CRP). The mean level of hepcidin and IL-6 showed a high significant increase in infected group than control group (p<0.001). There were significant positive correlations between hepcidin with IL-6, CRP(p<0.001), and I/Tratio (p= 0.037),There was a significant negative correlation between hepcidin and hemoglobin (p= 0.034).

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