Objective: Late-onset sepsis is responsible for high morbidity and
mortality in newborn infants in the world and in particular in
developing countries. In this study, we evaluated whether clinical
characteristics, laboratory parameters and measurements of serum
interleukin-8 (IL-8) are able to discriminate between late neonatal
sepsis and normal baby. Methods: This was a prospective
(case-control) study conducted between March 2007 and April 2008, at
the neonatal intensive care unit, Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran. The
study comprised 93 neonates ≥72 hours of life. The infants were
categorized in two groups based on the clinical presentation, and
biochemical markers including complete blood count, C-reactive protein
(CRP) and blood culture: 1) Control group including 42 infants with
routine screening and 2) Case group consisting of 38 infants with
definitive infection (positive blood and/or cerebrospinal fluid
culture) or clinical sepsis (clinical and laboratory signs of infection
without positive blood or CSF culture). Receiver-operating
characteristic curves were used for the determination of thresholds for
the infection group versus healthy neonate group. Findings: Eighty
infants were enrolled in this study. IL-8 and CRP decreased in order of
definitive infection, clinical sepsis and healthy subjects respectively
(P<0.001). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value,
negative predictive value for serum levels were 0.95, 0.1, 0.97, 0.1
for IL-8 and 0.83, 0.86, 0.83, 0.69 for CRP respectively (cut-off point
for IL-8 >60pg/ml and for CRP>6mg/dl). Conclusion: IL-8 may be
a valid and early predictive marker of neonatal infection. Also, IL-8
is associated with severity of infection