Early Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis

Sepsis is defined as a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) associated with infection diagnosed either on microbiologic cultures or strong clinical evidence of an infection..Worldwide, neonatal sepsis is responsible for 4 million deaths annually and 99% of them occur in developing countries.. . morbidity associated with sepsis includes sensorineural hearing loss, visual disturbances, seizures, and neurodevelopmental issues.. Blood culture is considered as gold standard for diagnosis of sepsis. The ideal diagnostic test should be inexpensive, have quick results Hematologic scoring system(HSS) of Rodwell et al. includes the following: a) White blood cell and platelet count b) White blood differential count c) Nucleated red blood cell count (to correct WBC count) d) Assessment of neutrophil morphology for degenerative changes. A modified HSS(modified hematological scoring system) was developed by removing the repetitive parameters, adding a new parameter - nucleated RBC.