Objective: Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are the most common causes of birth defects that have increased the risk of infections. Neonatal sepsis is a life-threatening condition and early diagnosis can be life-saving. We aimed to evaluate the potential role of the systemic immune-inflammatory index in the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 166 newborns with a diagnosis of neonatal sepsis who were admitted to our hospital with CHD between January 2017 and June 2021. Haematological indices including neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, and systemic immune-inflammatory index were calculated for all patients at the time of diagnosis of neonatal sepsis (sepsis). The sepsis values of these indices were compared with the admission values (pre-sepsis) of the patients.Results: The mean gestational age and birth weight of the patients were 38.36 ± 1.42 weeks and 3057.75 ± 484.68 g. It was found that absolute neutrophil count, systemic immune-inflammatory index, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, but not platelet/lymphocyte ratio were significantly increased at the time of sepsis. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that systemic immune-inflammatory index, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and absolute neutrophil count have predictive ability to define neonatal sepsis among newborns with CHD. The systemic immune-inflammatory index produced an area under the curve receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.76 (70% sensitivity, 70.5% specificity). To discriminate neonatal sepsis, the cut-off values of systemic immune-inflammatory index, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and absolute neutrophil count were 517.19, 2.62, and 9210/mm³, respectively.Conclusion: As an easily accessible and reliable indicator, systemic immune-inflammatory index may be used in combination with the other parameters in the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.

Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are the most common birth defects. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in premature infants, and probiotics can be used ...

Lung ultrasonography (LUS) is a noninvasive bed-side test and increasingly used by clinicians in the management and follow-up of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in premature infants.To compare ...

Background and aim: The thiol-disulphide homeostasis is essential for the body to maintain effective antioxidant defence mechanisms. We aimed to show the relationship between sepsis and thiol-disulphide homeostasis in newborns. Materials and methods: In this prospective study,66 newborns with sepsis (Group 1) and 51 healthy controls (Group 2) were included. In Group 1, 53 newborns were diagnosed as clinical sepsis (Group 1a) and 13 as definite sepsis (Group 1b). The study has to time points; the day of diagnosis (Step 1) and 3 days after the treatment (Step 2). At step 1, Group 1 and Group 2 were compared for thiol-disulphide homeostasis as well as inflammatory markers At step 2, the same laboratory tests were repeated only in Group 1. Results: At step 1, the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were higher, while native thiol and total thiol levels were lower in Group 1 compared to controls. Serum disulphide / total thiol ratio was also significantly higher in Group 1. When analyzed for subgroups of Group 1, demonstration of microorganism in did not affect the serum thiol levels. Within Group 1, at step 2, although CRP and IL-6 levels were significantly lowered compared to step 1, we did not observe significant changes in thiol-disulphide parameters. Conclusion: The thiol-disulphide homeostasis may have a role in the pathogenesis of sepsis in newborns. The related parameters might be new markers for the diagnosis of sepsis in newborn patients. Further studies are needed to define the role of thiol-disulphide homeostasis in the course of neonatal sepsis.

Objective:To determine the serum levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in preterms with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Materials and Methods: We included 37 preterm infants. The first blood samples were obtained within the first 5 days of life and repeated at the time of the first ophthalmologic examination for ROP. The levels of ADMA, IGF-1, and VEGF were measured in all samples. Results: ROP was detected in 12 of the subjects (32.4%). We categorized the subjects as non-ROP (Group 1; n = 25), untreated ROP (Group 2; n = 7), and treated ROP (Group 3; n = 5) according to the eye findings. There were no significant differences among the groups for serum levels of ADMA, VEGF, and IGF-1 at the first sampling. Conclusion: We did not find any differences in terms of serum ADMA, IGF-1, and VEGF levels in preterm infants with or without ROP.

Background : Preeclampsia (PE) is among the causes of serious morbidity and mortality for the mother and fetus. The most common consequences of intrauterine hypoxemia in the newborn are intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), premature labor, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and perinatal death. The systemic immune-inflammatory index (SII) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI), which is used as an indicator of inflammation, can be used to examine the effect of the immune status of babies of PE mothers on their prognosis. Methods : A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 148 newborns of PE mothers who received treatment in our NICU between November 2022 and July 2024. Hematological indices including neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, SII, and PNI were calculated for all patients. Subgroups were created for complications and analyses were performed. Results : For all preeclamptic mothers’ babies, the mean SII and PNI were 387.69 ± 348.13 and 49.08 ± 7.59, respectively. The SII for prematurity produced an area under the curveReceiver operating characteristic (ROC) of 0.76 (0.59–0.92) (88.4% sensitivity, 70% specificity). The PNI for prematurity produced an area under the curve ROC of 0.72 (0.57–0.86) (63% sensitivity, 70% specificity). That was found that the SII has more sensitivity than the PNI for detecting prematurity in preeclamptic mothers’ babies. Low PNI and SII were independent predictors of mortality ( p < 0.01). Conclusion : We found that it is significant for SII and NLR to be low at the time of admission to predict mortality in infants of preeclamptic mothers.