ObjectiveTo explore the relation of thymus index and peripheral blood absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) with prognosis of neonates with infectious pneumonia. MethodsThe clinical data of 203 neonates with infectious pneumonia were retrospectively analyzed, and children were divided into adverse prognosis group or favorable prognosis group according to prognosis. The general clinical data, thymus index, and peripheral blood ALC were compared between children of the two groups. The multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors for prognosis of neonates with infectious pneumonia. The efficiency of thymus index, peripheral blood ALC for alone and jointly predicting adverse prognosis of neonates with infectious pneumonia by using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. ResultsAmong 203 children, there were 42 cases with adverse prognosis (the adverse prognosis group), and 161 cases with favorable prognosis (the favorable prognosis group) in total, with the incidence rate of adverse prognosis in 20.69%. Children in the adverse prognosis group obtained a higher proportion of post-birth 1-minute Apgar score≤7, and a longer length of neonatal intensive care unit stay, as well as higher lung ultrasound score, pre-treatment serum interleukin 6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin levels as compared with the favorable prognosis group, while lower thymus index and peripheral blood ALC as compared with the favorable prognosis group (P＜0.05). The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that the elevations of post-birth 1-minute Apgar score, lung ultrasound score, and pre-treatment procalcitonin level were independent risk factors for adverse prognosis of neonates with infectious pneumonia, while the elevations of thymus index and peripheral blood ALC were the protective factors (P＜0.05). The results of ROC curve analysis indicated that areas under the curve of thymus index and peripheral blood ALC for alone and jointly predicting adverse prognosis of neonates with infectious pneumonia were 0.816, 0.800, and 0.890, respectively, and area under the curve of the combined prediction of the two was larger than that of areas under the curve of thymus index and peripheral blood ALC for single prediction (P＜0.05). ConclusionDecreases of thymus index and peripheral blood ALC may increase the occurrence risk of adverse prognosis in neonates with infectious pneumonia. The two indices exert predictive efficiency for prognosis of such children to a certain extent, and the predictive efficiency is higher when the two indices are used together.

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