Evaluation of myocardial function in neonatal sepsis using tissue Doppler imaging

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the ventricular function in neonatal sepsis using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). Background: A leading cause of newborn morbidity and mortality is neonatal sepsis. Cardiac dysfunction is a significant side effect of severe sepsis. Methods: This study is a prospective case-control study that was conducted from August 2020 to March 2021with 50 neonates having culture-proven sepsis (cases), recruited from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Menoufia University Hospital together with another 50 age and sex-matched sepsis-free neonates (control). Patients were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, routine investigations (complete blood count (CBC), quantitative C-reactive protein, ALT, AST, creatinine, and blood culture), and imaging including echocardiography and tissue doppler. Results: There is a significant difference between cases and controls regarding all parameters of clinical sepsis score (CSS) being higher in cases than control (p0.005). Conclusion: CSS and HSS are significant diagnostic tools for sepsis and its outcome. Despite systemic affection in septic patients, cardiac and tissue Doppler imaging doesn’t reveal any significant difference in the tested parameters between cases and controls neither between survived and non-survived neonates.