Zahra Abroshan
Hassan Boskabadi - Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Background: One of the most important complications of morbidity and mortality in premature neonates is intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), especially in very low birth weight (VLBW) newborns. Since this complication is often asymptomatic and there is still no essential treatment for it, a simple way for timely prevention of this complication can be helpful. This study compared the number of nucleated red blood cell (NRBC) counts in infants with and without intraventricular hemorrhage.Methods & Materials: In a case-control study, 109 VLBW neonates (weighing less than 1500 gr) who were referred to the NICU department of Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad (77 neonates who did not have IVH as control and 32 neonates with IVH as a case group) were investigated to evaluate the predictive value of NRBC in diagnosis of IVH. The percentage of NRBC per 100 white blood cells was determined from the blood sample. On the 3rd to 5th day after birth, brain ultrasonography was performed for these neonates and then we compared this index in both groups with and without IVH.Results: In this study, the mean NRBC / 100 wbc in neonates with IVH was 15.19% and in the group without IVH, 40.95%, which was not statistically significant difference (p = 0.473). The mean absolute number of NRBC in the group with IVH was 2272.38/μl and in the group without IVH 5459.17/μl, which was not statistically significant difference (p = 0.663). Based on the ROC curve, the NRBC value does not have a diagnostic value in predicting the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage.Conclusion: According to the results of our study, the number of absolute NRBCs and the percentage of NRBC per 100 wbc cannot help to predict the probability of neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage, although further studies are recommended in this regard.

Intraventricular hemorrhage, Nucleated red blood cells, Premature infants, Very Low Birth Weight