Background: Neonatal sepsis is a generalized bacterial infection which occurs in the first month of life. Intraventricular hemorrhage is the most common intracerebral disorder which occurs in premature neonates. Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) is considered as a marker of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in some studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of MPV on IVH and sepsis in neonates.
Materials and methods: In this retrospective case-control study, 20 premature neonates with sepsis and 20 with sepsis and intraventricular hemorrhage were considered as case groups and 20 premature neonates without sepsis and IVH were regarded as control group. Demographic data as well as patients' data on IVH presence, IVH grading, mortality, platelet account, and MPVon the first and third days after birth were recorded using their medical files. After data collection, analysis was performed using SPSS (version 21) and running descriptive and analytical methods (T test, ANOVA and Chi square test).
Results: In this study, 10 newborns (50%) in the sepsis group, 13 newborns (65%) in the IVH – sepsis group, and 10 newborns (50%) in the control group were male (P = 0.523). Mean ± standard deviation of gestational age and weight at birth were significantly lower in the IVH and sepsis group in comparison with the other two groups (P-value < 0.001). Considering platelet count on first day, no significant difference was observed among three groups; however, it was lower in the control group than the sepsis group as well as the IVH and sepsis group (P=0.004). Gender, birth weight, gestational age, onset of sepsis, and presence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) could not make significant changes in MPV three groups.
Conclusion: The results showed that MPV on the first day was significantly higher in patients with sepsis or with sepsis and IVH.

Background: Early detection of neonatal sepsis and categorization of patients based on clinical severity is not yet effectively achieved. Some hematological parameters are used to formulate a hematological scoring system (HSS) and a modified hematological scoring system (MHSS) to diagnose neonatal sepsis. A promising biomarker: Presepsin, or Soluble Cluster of Differentiation 14 SubType (sCD14-ST), is a proteolysis product of CD14 produced after immune activation during infections. The purpose of this research is to assess the performance of both hematological sepsis scores and serum presepsin level in neonatal sepsis and compare them to C-reactive protein (CRP) as diagnostic tools and predictors of mortality.
Materials and Methods: This case-control study comprised two groups, one group comprised 51 neonates who were further subgrouped into suspected & proved sepsis, along with 30 uninfected neonates as the control group. Both groups were subjected to the calculation of HSS and MHSS, serum presepsin levels, CRP measurement, and blood culture and assessed for clinical severity and mortality.
Results: Hematological sepsis scores and presepsin levels were significantly higher in the sepsis group (P <0.001). Presepsin showed the best diagnostic performance at > 0.5 ng/ml (AUC 0.979; sensitivity of 94.1% and specificity of 100%). While HSS and MHSS at a cutoff value > 1 achieved comparable specificity, lower sensitivity, 72.6% for the former and 76.5% for the later was noted. Presepsin also was significantly higher in the dead group (P<0.004) with the best predictive performance over CRP at cutoff value >1.9 ng/ml (AUC 0.838; sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 79.6%).
Conclusion: Hematological sepsis scores and presepsin were useful diagnostic tools in neonatal sepsis, with presepsin as a good predictor of mortality comparable to CRP.

Background: Early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis is quite challenging. I/T ratio (immature to mature neutrophil ratio) is a highly sensitive marker of sepsis but is time-consuming and subjective. Off late, volume conductivity and scatter (VCS) of neutrophils are among the newer parameters available for screening a septic neonate. This study aimed to determine the correlation between the I/T ratio and VCS parameters in neonatal sepsis and estimate a cut-off value of VCS parameters to diagnose neonatal sepsis using receiver operating curve analysis.
Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted by the Department of Pathology and Neonatology from April 2019 to March 2020 in a tertiary care center. A total of 110 newborns were included in this study and were divided into two groups (probable sepsis and sepsis). Data were collected from the hospital database, and analysis was done using SPSS software. Correlation between the I/T ratio and VCS parameters was done using Spearman’s correlation. Results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). A P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. 
Results: Correlation between the I /T ratio and VCS parameters showed negative correlation values of -0.22, -0.23, and +0.39 (P-values of 0.0198, 0.0153, and <0.0001) for mean neutrophil conductivity (MNC), mean neutrophil scatter (MNS) and mean neutrophil volume (MNV) respectively. MNV with a cut-off of > 156.4 had sensitivity and a negative predictive value of 100 % in the diagnosis of sepsis and was found to be higher in the sepsis group when compared to the probable sepsis group.
Conclusion: Based on the significant difference in VCS parameters of neutrophils in the sepsis group, this aids as an additional marker for the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.