Rationale: Early diagnosis of sepsis in neonates is complicated as the signs and symptoms are nonspecific. Although blood culture is the gold standard for the diagnosis, false-negative results and long incubation period of 36-72 hours limits the use of blood culture to rule out sepsis at initial suspicion. Since delay in diagnosis may lead to progressive deterioration, antibiotics are often started empirically at initial sepsis suspicion, awaiting results of the blood culture. Consequently, uninfected infants are often unnecessarily exposed to empirical antibiotics. To reduce unnecessary treatment of non-infected infants, an early, sensitive and specific diagnostic tool would be helpful to guide clinicians faster when to discontinue antibiotics. Molecular Culture (MC) via IS-pro is a novel, advanced, molecular culture technique which is able to culture bacteria within 4 hours after blood sampling. MC might thus be a potential diagnostic tool to detect or rule out sepsis in infants quickly, however data on MC for diagnosis of sepsis in this population is limited. Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate whether MC is of additive predictive value for the diagnosis sepsis in this vulnerable group. Study design: Prospective observational cohort study. Study population: All infants suspected for neonatal sepsis of both early and late onset will be eligible for study participation. They will be treated according to the standard local guidelines. Intervention (if applicable): In case of a suspicion of sepsis at birth, blood will be collected for a conventional blood culture as part of standard care. Additionally, a blood sample will be collected from the umbilical cord for MC. In case of a suspicion of sepsis not directly postpartum, an additional blood sample will be taken for MC analysis, directly following sampling for conventional culture, implying no extra phlebotomy. Main study parameters/endpoints: The main study parameter is the discordance in positive and negative outcomes of MC compared to outcomes of conventional blood culture. As the diagnostic accuracy of the conventional blood culture (the current gold standard) is being questioned, the predictive value of MC versus conventional blood culture towards clinical sepsis will also be tested.
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Comparison of Molecular Culture results to traditional culture
Timeframe: The outcome measure will be assessed after study completion, approximately 2 years after start of inclusion