Purpose: C-reactive protein (CRP) level and platelet (PLT) count have been demonstrated to be independent risk factor for neonatal sepsis. However, no data is currently available in regarding the association between CRP-to-PLT ratio (CPR) and neonatal sepsis.
Methods: A total of 1048 neonates with suspected sepsis were enrolled in this study. Complete clinical and laboratory data were collected. CPR was calculated as CRP (mg/L)/PLT (10⁷ cells/L). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the potential independent risk factors of neonatal sepsis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of CPR in predicting neonatal sepsis.
Results: Neonates with sepsis had a higher CPR. CPR also showed a gradual increase in the infection, mild sepsis and severe sepsis groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that CPR was a significant independent predictor of the presence of neonatal sepsis (odds ratio [OR], 1.015; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.008– 1.022, P < 0.001) and severe sepsis (OR, 1.002; 95% CI, 1.000– 1.003, P = 0.007). ROC curve revealed showed that CPR had a well-discriminatory power in predicting sepsis (area under curve [AUC], 0.68; 95% CI, 0.65– 0.72, P < 0.001) and severe sepsis (AUC, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.65– 0.72, P < 0.001).
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that a higher CPR is an independent predictor of the presence and severity of neonatal sepsis.
Keywords: C-reactive protein-to-platelet ratio, neonatal sepsis, risk factor, severe sepsis