Presepsin levels in positive and negative blood cultures of febrile neutropenic pediatric patients with malignancies in Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia

This was observational research with cross sectional type of study conducted from January to October 2020 at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya. The subjects of the research were 30 children’s patients with febrile neutropenic episodes with malignancy based on the criteria of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Infectious Disease Society of America, which were grouped into 2 groups based on blood culture results from secondary data. The control group was hemophilia patients without any complaint. The presepsin level was checked using ELISA. The differences in presepsin levels in positive and negative blood cultures and the control were analyzed using T2 free samples or Mann-Whitney U according to the data distribution. Median (min-max) presepsin levels in positive, negative and control cultures: 4.1(0.3 - 14) ng/mL, 2.95(0.2 - 13.8) ng/mL, 0.1(0.1 - 0.5)ng/mL. There is no significant difference in presepsin levels between positive and negative blood culture (p = 0.606). There is a significant difference between positive and negative culture presepsin levels towards controls (p = 0.001 and p = <0.001). There is an increase in the level of presepsin in febrile neutropenic pediatric patients with malignancy, but this examination cannot differentiate between bacteremia and non-bacteremia infections.