English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Sepsis remains an important cause of hospitalisation and mortality worldwide among patients admitted in intensive care units (ICU). Due to increasing mortality and morbidity of sepsis early diagnosis and treatment are essential. This can be achieved with the help of biomarkers–haematological and inflammatory i.e., C-reactive protein (CRP) and pro calcitonin (PCT). They are found to be highly sensitive and useful markers for early detection and management of sepsis. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study conducted from May 2019 to March 2020 in the Department of Biochemistry, ESI Hospital, Okhla. A total of 104 subjects were recruited for the study. Of them, 52 subjects were healthy controls, and 52 cases were ICU patients. Samples were taken to evaluate differential leucocyte count (DLC), red cell distribution width standard deviation (RDW SD), platelet count (PLT), absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and platelet crit as haematological markers whereas Creactive protein, fibrinogen and pro calcitonin indices were chosen as inflammatory. markers. RESULTS There was significant increase in the TLC (21583.51 ± 2240.36), total neutrophil count (7889.48 ± 1482.83), immature neutrophil (2.97 ± 1.67), fibrinogen levels (518.07 ± 66.74), CRP (0.048 ± 0.01) and pro calcitonin levels (0.062 ± 0.22) of the cases as compared to the healthy controls. The platelet count was observed to be higher in healthy subjects as compared to the patients in ICU. CONCLUSIONS The study results showed that clinical examination along with laboratory testing which include hematologic and inflammatory biomarkers is the most effective combination of parameters for rapidly and accurately predicting or diagnosing sepsis in a critically ill patient. KEY WORDS Sepsis, Haematological, Inflammatory, CRP, PCT, Fibrinogen