Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb 28;78(1):221-226.
doi: 10.22092/ARI.2022.358608.2259. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Comparison between Polymerase Chain Reaction and Blood Culture for Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis

M Hayder Hamad  1 , M Eidan Hadi  1 , I K Ajam  2
Affiliations

Comparison between Polymerase Chain Reaction and Blood Culture for Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis

M Hayder Hamad et al. Arch Razi Inst. .

Abstract

Neonatal sepsis can be defined as any systemic bacterial infection confirmed by a positive blood culture in the first month of life. This study evaluated the polymerase chain reaction as the diagnostic approach to identify neonatal sepsis instead of blood culture. In this study, 85 blood specimens were collected from 85 patients with suspected septicemia; ages ranged between 1 to 28 days from both sexes (53 males and 32 females) from November 2014 to March 2015. From each neonate, a minimum of 1-3 ml of blood was collected by standard sterile procedures, 2 ml for blood culture, while 1 ml was used for DNA extraction. A minimum of 2 ml of blood is taken through venipuncture and injected into two or more "blood bottles" with specific media for aerobic and anaerobic organisms. The blood is collected using an aseptic technique. The recorded data showed that the bacterial culture was positive in 7.06% of patients versus 92.9%, revealing a negative bacterial culture. The most common types of bacteria isolated were three isolates of Klebsiella spp. (50.0%), followed by one isolate of Staphylococcus aureus (16.67%), one E. coli (16.67%) isolate, and one Enterobacter spp. (16.67%) isolate. Finally, molecular detection for bacterial sepsis was done using specific primers (16 sRNA, rpoB and its). It was found that 16 sRNA genes were present in 20% of samples, and rpoB gene was present in (18.8%). While its gene used for the detection of fungi revealed negative results in all samples.

Keywords: 16 sRNA; Neonatal sepsis; PCR; Septicemia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Gel electrophoresis of PCR products of 16s rRNA gene in neonatal sepsis
Figure 2
Figure 2
Gel electrophoresis product of rpoB gene
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fanaroff AA, Stoll BJ, Wright LL, Carlo WA, Ehrenkranz RA, Stark AR, et al. Trends in neonatal morbidity and mortality for very low birthweight infants. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2007;196(2):147. - PubMed
    1. Ottolini MC, Lundgren K, Mirkinson LJ, Cason S, Ottolini MG. Utility of complete blood count and blood culture screening to diagnose neonatal sepsis in the asymptomatic at risk newborn. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2003;22(5):430–4. - PubMed
    1. Shah AJ, Mulla SA, Revdiwala SB. Neonatal sepsis: high antibiotic resistance of the bacterial pathogens in a neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital. J Clin Neonatol. 2012;1(2):72. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mutlu M, Aslan Y, Saygin B, Yilmaz G, Bayramoğlu G, Köksal I. Neonatal Sepsis Caused by Gram-negative Bacteria in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Six Years Analysis 新生兒深切治療部中由革蘭氏陰性細菌所導致的醫院內感染性膿毒癥: 一個持續六年的分析. HK J Paediatr (new series). 2011;16(4):253–7.
    1. Baltimore RS, Huie SM, Meek JI, Schuchat A, O'Brien KL. Early-onset neonatal sepsis in the era of group B streptococcal prevention. Pediatrics. 2001;108(5):1094–8. - PubMed

Substances

LinkOut - more resources