Utility of neut-X, neut-Y and neut-Z parameters for rapidly assessing sepsis in tumor patients

•Neut-X and neut-Y parameters could facilitate the auxiliary diagnosis of sepsis.•Neut-Z, a newly created parameters, displays better performance.•We compared the diagnostic values of neut-X, Y, Z with CRP and PCT levels.•Neut-Y, Z were lower in fungal infection than bacterial infection.

BackgroundThe Sysmex XE-5000 hematology analyzer evaluates toxic granulation and the nuclear maturity of toxic granulation neutrophils via the parameters neut-X and neut-Y. This study investigated whether neut-X and neut-Y could facilitate the auxiliary diagnosis of sepsis.MethodsBlood samples were collected from 113 patients with tumors and 130 healthy individuals to detect neut-X, neut-Y, and C-reactive protein (CRP) values. Then, we created a new parameter, neut-Z, the vector sum of neut-X and neut-Y. Furthermore, we assessed procalcitonin (PCT) concentrations in patients with sepsis and compared the values with those for neut-X, neut-Y, and neut-Z.ResultsNeut-X, neut-Y, neut-Z, and CRP values were significantly higher in the sepsis group than in the non-sepsis and healthy groups. The ROC-AUCs for neut-X, neut-Y, neut-Z, and CRP for a diagnosis of sepsis were 0.87 (sensitivity 82%, specificity 79%), 0.87 (78 and 94%, respectively), 0.91 (82 and 88%, respectively), and 0.95 (96 and 89%, respectively), respectively. Additionally, neut-X, neut-Y, and neut-Z were correlated with CRP and PCT levels.ConclusionsNeut-X and neut-Y can be used as rapid and simple auxiliary indicators in the diagnosis of sepsis in patients with tumors, and neut-Z appears to display better performance than its 2 components.