Abstract
Neonatal sepsis is one of the most critical illnesses in newborns with significant morbidity and mortality, particularly in developing countries. The present, cross-sectional, hospital-based, study was conducted to evaluate the association of red cell distribution width (RDW) with neonatal sepsis and its role as a predictive marker in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis at Soba University Hospital, during the period July 2018 to April 2019. The study population was term neonates, aged 1-28 days, who were diagnosed with neonatal sepsis, with positive blood culture. A total of 111 full-term neonates had blood culture proven neonatal sepsis and the majority of them (100%, 90%) had positive C-reactive protein (CRP). The average RDW in this study was 19.3% and was elevated in 103 (92%) of the study participants with a significant association with positive blood culture. The majority (65%, 58.6%) of mothers of the studied neonates did not have an illness during pregnancy, 19 (17.1%) had diabetes mellitus, 9 (8.1%) had hypertension, in addition to other different conditions in 18 (16.2%). The common causes of admission of the studied newborns included respiratory distress (70%, 79%), jaundice (33%, 29.7%) and lethargy (28%, 25.2%). Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism isolated from blood culture in 50 (45.0%) patients, and Escherichia coli was the least one, isolated in only one (0.9%) newborn. There is a significant association between positive blood culture, CRP and elevated RDW (p-value 0.01). RDW was found to be significantly elevated in the studied newborns with neonatal sepsis.

Key words: Newborn; Sepsis; Red cell distribution width; C-reactive protein; Sudan.