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Subject Area

Pediatrics

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objectives To evaluate nucleated red blood cells (nRBCs) as a prognostic value in critically ill neonates. Background nRBCs are premature red blood cells, are an indicator of hematopoiesis in a newborn infant, and have been known to be associated with intrauterine hypoxia. Patients and methods This cohort study included 94 newborn infants who presented to the neonatal ICU in Menoufia University and Shebin El-Kom Teaching Hospital and fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: infants with sepsis, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, necrotizing enterocolitis, patent ductus arteriosus, and preterm infants. Infants were only excluded if they did not perform a complete blood count during their admission. All of them were subjected to full history taking, physical examination, and laboratory investigations including C-reactive protein, complete blood count, and blood film stained with Leishman stain for counting of nRBCs manually. Results In our study, among all patients admitted to the neonatal ICU, the presence of an elevated nRBC value was associated with increased mortality in a quantitative manner (P < 0.05), with high sensitivity to predict mortality (87.5% of nonsurvivors presented with nRBCs in the blood film in comparison with 61.5% of survivors), which was statistically significant. Conclusion nRBC count may be used as a prognostic factor in critically ill neonates.

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