The Relationship of Fibrinogen to Albumin Ratio with the Presence and Severity of Sepsis in Neonates

Purpose: Previous studies have shown that fibrinogen and albumin are closely related to sepsis. However, the role of fibrinogen (FIB) to albumin (ALB) ratio (FAR) in sepsis was still unclear, especially in neonates. Thus, this study is aimed at investigating whether FAR could independently predict the presence and severity of sepsis in neonates. Methods In this paper, clinical and laboratory data of 1292 neonates were retrospectively collected and divided them into three groups according to clinical diagnosis: control group (n = 555), mild sepsis group (n = 312), and severe sepsis group (n = 425). Neonates with sepsis were further divided into mild sepsis and severe sepsis group according to the severity of sepsis. All statistical analyses were performed using the statistical package SPSS 26.0, as appropriate. Results FAR levels were higher in neonates with sepsis. The prevalence of neonates with overall sepsis, mild sepsis and severe sepsis increased significantly from FAR tertile 1 to tertile 3. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that FAR was an independent risk factor for the presence of sepsis (OR = 8.641, 95% CI 5.708–13.080, P < 0.001) and severe sepsis (OR = 2.817, 95% CI 1.701–4.666, P < 0.001). ROC curve analysis showed that FAR had a well discriminatory power in predicting sepsis (AUC = 0.67,95% CI 0.64–0.70, P < 0.001) and severe sepsis (AUC = 0.60, 95% CI, 0.57–0.64, P = 0.018). Conclusion In the current study, we demonstrated that FAR was an independent predictor for the presence and severity of neonatal sepsis.