title: The use of laboratory biomarkers for surveillance, diagnosis and prediction of clinical outcomes in neonatal sepsis and necrotising enterocolitis.
abstract: Biomarkers have been used to differentiate systemic neonatal infection and necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) from other non-infective neonatal conditions that share similar clinical features. With increasing understanding in biochemical characteristics of different categories of biomarkers, a specific mediator or a panel of mediators have been used in different aspects of clinical management in neonatal sepsis/NEC. This review focuses on how these biomarkers can be used in real-life clinical settings for daily surveillance, bedside point-of-care testing, early diagnosis and predicting the severity and prognosis of neonatal sepsis/NEC. In addition, with recent development of 'multi-omic' approaches and rapid advancement in knowledge of bioinformatics, more novel biomarkers and unique signatures of mediators would be discovered for diagnosis of specific diseases and organ injuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Pak Cheung
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Terence Ping Yuen
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Hugh Simon
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lam
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D020345:Enterocolitis, Necrotizing / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011379:Prognosis; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: biomarkers; infants; infection; necrotising enterocolitis