Objectives To assess the efficacy of early estimation of serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interleukin (IL)-6 to differentiation between infants less than 3 months of age had sepsis and those free of infection and to assess their use as early predictor for result of blood culture (BC).

Patients and methods The study included 90 infants less than 3 month old, admitted to paediatric department of Benha university hospital, all of them showed clinically features of sepsis. Our patients were subdivided into; clinically septic infants with positive BC, clinically septic infants with negative BC and suspected septic infants with negative BC. Two venous blood samples were obtained: The first at time of hospital admission for ELISA estimation of hs-CRP and IL-6 serum levels and the second sample was obtained either at time of development of clinical signs of sepsis or at 72 h in non-infected groups.

Results Blood culture was positive in 42 infants, 21 infants were clinically infected but with negative BC and 27 infants were suspected to have sepsis and BC were negative. Serum hs-CRP and IL-6 levels were significantly higher in infants with positive BC compared with those with negative BC. Assessing the predictive factors for infantile sepsis with positive BC by regression analysis showed that high total WBC count, high hs-CRP, and serum IL-6 were the most significant predictors.

Conclusion Early estimation of serum hs-CRP andIL-6 levels could provide an early prediction for positive BC so allowing early initiation of therapy.