Clinical significance of procalcitonin and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in neonatal infections

OBJECTIVE To detect the clinical significance of procalcitonin and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in neonatal infections.METHODS From May 2009 to Aug 2011,totally 386 cases of infants born within 1 week in the department of neonatology in our hospital and Wenzhou Children′s Hospital were observed,among which 159 cases were with mild infections,51 cases were with severe infections,and 176 cases were healthy newborns;the levels of procalcitonin and C-reactive protein of the 3 groups were compared before treatment.RESULTS The levels of procalcitonin of healthy newborns group and the severe infections group were(0.61±0.32) g/L and(5.27±2.64) g/L;the levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein were(0.84±0.16) mg/L and(13.98±5.64) mg/L;WBC counts were(10.1 ±1.8)×109/L and(17.9±5.4)×109/L,neutrophils were(0.4%±0.1)% and(0.8±0.2)%,the differences were statistically significant(P0.05);the levels of procalcitonin in healthy newborns and mild infections groups were(0.61±0.32) g/L and(1.67±1.01) g/L,the difference was statistically significant(P0.05).CONCLUSION The determination of procalcitonin can help to diagnose the early infectious diseases in an a earlier,more accurate and susceptible manner.