“…Of them, 15 studies had a control group of healthy neonates [ 19 , 24 – 27 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 35 – 39 , 46 ], five studies had a control group of neonates who were suspected of sepsis, but eventually had negative blood cultures [ 20 , 28 , 40 , 41 , 44 ], and ten studies included other ICU admitted neonates as the control group [ 17 , 18 , 21 – 23 , 31 , 34 , 42 , 43 , 45 ]. Twenty studies were prospective [ 17 – 25 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 35 – 38 , 41 , 42 , 44 ] and 10 studies were retrospective [ 26 , 28 , 31 , 33 , 34 , 39 , 40 , 43 , 45 , 46 ]. Nine studies included neonates with early-onset sepsis [ 17 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 31 , 35 , 37 , 44 , 46 ] and five included neonates with late-onset sepsis [ 20 , 26 , 28 , 29 , 43 ].…”