Vitamin D and short prognosis of newborns

Background: vitamin D deficiency is associated with prematurity, respiratory problems and infections. These are important causes of premature neonatal death. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the vitamin D level in the blood of preterm live neonates discharged with dead neonates.Methods: in a cross-sectional study, 335 premature infants (less than 34 weeks of gestation) were discharged and 48 infants died were examined for their umbilical cord vitamin D. Demographic characteristics of infants( age, birth weight, duration of oxygen therapy, Apgar score of first and fifth minutes, duration of mechanical ventilation), neonatal laboratory information( sodium, calcium, PH, vitamin D, urea and creatinine) and maternal characteristics ( age and gestational age) was recorded. For analysis, descriptive statistics and covariance analysis were used with SPSS version 21.Results: Eighty-eight percent of our premature neonates have vitamin D deficiency. The mean of vitamin D in the discharged neonates was 14.87 ± 10.94 and died at 9.4 ± 60.52 mg/dL(P <0.01). There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the type of delivery, Apgar score of first and fifth minutes, duration of oxygen therapy and gestational age (P <0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study showed that most premature neonates have a severe vitamin D deficiency, and this deficiency has been more pronounced in the dead neonates than in the newborns discharged, despite the fact that the role of gestational age has been eliminated. Measurement of cord vitamin D level may help predict the short prognosis of premature neonates.

Keywords:

Deficiency , Vitamin D , Newborn , Prematurity , Infant Death , Patient Discharge , Prognosis