Turkish J Pediatr
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We aimed to define the demographic characteristics, clinical features and outcome of patients with brain death, and to emphasize the importance of organ donation from children. Data for the period from September 2009 to October 2012 were collected retrospectively. Twenty children who were diagnosed as brain death were included. ⋯ When both centers were compared, there was no significant difference in regard to obtaining consent for organ donation, survival after diagnosis of brain death and length of stay in the PICU (p>0.05). Early diagnosis of brain death and prompt evaluation of patients by ICU physicians once the diagnosis is taken into consideration will probably yield better organs and reduce costs. Training PICU physicians, nurses and organ donation coordinators, and increasing children's awareness of the need for organ donation via means of public communication may increase families' rate of agreement to organ donation in the future.
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Multicenter Study
Role of procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.
Diagnosis of neonatal sepsis may be difficult because clinical presentations are often nonspecific, bacterial cultures are time-consuming and other laboratory tests lack sensitivity and specificity. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in establishing the diagnosis and evaluating the prognosis of neonatal sepsis. Twenty-six neonates with blood-culture positivity and clinical sepsis, hospitalized for clinical suspicion of neonatal sepsis in neonatal intensive care units of Balcali Hospital, Cukurova University and Adana State Hospital between May 2000 and January 2001 (Group I) and 29 healthy neonates followed at the neonatal units and outpatient clinics of these hospitals (Group II) in the same period were studied. ⋯ For the cut-off value of TNF-alpha > or = 7.5 pg/ml, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic efficacy were found to be 100%, 96.6%, 96.2%, 96.5% and 98.3%, respectively. It was detected that sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic efficacy values were lower for IL-6, CRP and IL-8. We conclude that PCT and TNF-alpha are the best markers in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis, and these markers are also valuable in following the effectiveness of treatment and determining the prognosis of the disease.