Evaluation of sepsis screening and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation-time of flight mass spectrometry for the diagnosis of neonatal candidaemia in a Sub-Himalayan tertiary centre in India.

Authors

Arushi Gupta, Balram Ji Omar, Mohit Bhatia, Yogendra Pratap Mathuria, Sriparna Basu

Published in

Tropical doctor. Pages 494755261467569. Jul 08, 2026. Epub Jul 08, 2026.

Abstract

Neonatal candidaemia is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal intensive care settings, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where diagnostic delays remain a challenge.The diagnostic utility of a five-parameter sepsis screen and the comparison of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) with VITEK-2 for identification of Candida species in neonates were evaluated at a tertiary care institute in the sub-Himalayan region of India from November 2022 to March 2024. Non-albicans Candida species accounted for 75% of isolates. Significant discordance was observed between MALDI-TOF MS and VITEK-2, particularly for cryptic species. The sepsis screen demonstrated a sensitivity of 77.8% but lacked specificity because it included only culture-positive fungal cases. The mortality rate was 30%. Thus, we conclude that a sepsis screen serves as a useful early screening tool but is non-specific. MALDI-TOF MS provides more accurate and faster species identification than biochemical methods. A combined diagnostic approach may help reduce delays in targeted therapy in neonatal candidemia.

PMID:
42417059
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.