ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Neonatology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1603378
The clinical application of subcutaneous thoracic ratio and capillary leakage index on the occurrence of capillary leak syndrome in neonates with sepsis
Provisionally accepted
Luying CaoYuhong SongLi ZhangXiaolu Liu
Yiying YinZhenrong YuYu ZhangKun FengWeihong YueYa Hu
Ziyu Hua
Hong Wei*- Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: To evaluate the predictive and prognostic value of the subcutaneousthoracic ratio (S/T) and capillary leakage index (CLI) for capillary leak syndrome (CLS) in neonatal sepsis. Materials and Methods: A cohort of 196 neonates with sepsis, admitted to a tertiary children's hospital in southwestern China between January 2019 and March 2021, was included in the study. The neonates were divided into two groups: the CLS group (n=55) and the non-CLS group (n=55). Multivariate logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed to identify key predictors of CLS. Results: Both S/T and CLI were found to be independent risk factors for CLS in neonatal sepsis (P<0.05). The median S/T values for the CLS group and non-CLS group were 9.0% and 7.1%, respectively, while the median CLI values were 8.5 and 3.2. The optimal thresholds for predicting CLS were identified as 8.1% for S/T (sensitivity: 67.3%, specificity: 70.9%) and 3.3 for CLI (sensitivity: 78.2%, specificity: 56.4%). Notably, the combination of S/T and CLI yielded improved predictive performance, with a sensitivity of 81.8% and specificity of 60.0%. However, neither S/T nor CLI were significantly associated with prognosis, as no difference was observed between survivors and non-survivors (P>0.05).The combined application of S/T and CLI provides an effective tool for predicting the occurrence of CLS in neonatal sepsis. However, these indicators do not demonstrate prognostic value for survival outcomes.
Keywords: Capillary Leak Syndrome, Capillary leakage index, neonate, Sepsis, Subcutaneous thoracic ratio
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cao, Song, Zhang, Liu, Yin, Yu, Zhang, Feng, Yue, Hu, Hua and Wei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hong Wei, Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.