Pentraxin-3 and neonatal sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The potential bond between pentraxin-3 levels and neonatal sepsis has been the center of research in many primary studies. The aim of the current meta-analysis is to examine whether there are differences among pentraxin-3 levels in septic and in healthy neonates. Our search strategy included the systematic search of the following databases: MEDLINE, Clinicaltrials.gov, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Google Scholar, using a structured algorithm. Statistical analysis of the overall outcome was done using Revman 5.4 software while leave-one-out and meta-regression analysis were done using the R software. Quality assessment of the included studies was done using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Pentraxin-3 levels were found to be higher in newborns affected by sepsis than in healthy neonates with an MD = 7.66 [95% CI 0.89, 14.42 (<i>p</i> = .03, <i>I</i>² = 99%)]. Subgroup analysis, based on the country of origin of the included study, led to <i>I</i>² = 0 with an MD = 1.25 with 95% CI [0.82, 1.69], <i>p</i> &lt; 10⁻⁵. Publication bias was assessed using the trim and fill method together with visual inspection of the funnel plots, showcasing no missing studies. The results of our study show that pentraxin-3 is elevated in neonates with sepsis making it a potential biomarker that needs to be assessed for its diagnostic accuracy in future cohort studies.