| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 16
| Issue : 1 | Page : 34-37 |
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Can umbilical cord blood counts substitute venous blood counts done in the first six hours of life in term neonates?
Navneet Nath1, Shankar Narayan2
1 Classified Specialist (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Mumbai, India
2 Senior Advisor (Pediatrics & Neonatology), INHS Asvini, Mumbai, India
Correspondence Address:
Shankar Narayan
Senior Advisor (Pediatrics & Neonatology), INHS Asvini, Mumbai
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0975-3605.203337
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Background: A large number of neonatal conditions can be anticipated before or identified at birth. Many of these conditions need venous sampling of neonates to determine hematologicalparameters. There are no studies to show whether the easily available umbilical cord sample can be used to obtain these test parmeters in full-term neonates.
Materials & Methods: This retrospective, one-year study included full-term neonates with conditions that can be predicted before birth (infection in the infant of a mother with prolonged rupture of membranes, Rh negative mothers' infant, Intra-uterine growth retardation, transient tachypnoea ofnewborn following caesarean section) or at birth (birth asphyxia). Umbilical cord blood hemoglobin, total and differential leukocyte counts and platelet counts were compared with the same parameters obtainedfrom venous blood drawn from neonates within six hours of birth.
Results: A total of 49 neonates were eligible and included. The mean (s.d.) values of parameters for cord blood were 15.49 gm/dL (3.36) for hemoglobin; 12695.26/dL (6181.49) for total leukocyte count; Ploymorphs 48.61% (15.97); Lymphocytes 39.46% (15.83); Eosinophils 4.17% (2.2) and Monocytes 4.7% (2.27) while mean platelet count was 254.4 × 103/dL (91.5). The same parameters for venous blood were mean hemoglobin of15.78 gm/dl (2.76); TLC13373.47/dL (6499.16); Ploymorphs50.04% (14.45);Lymphocytes41.08% (15.26); Eosinophils 4.14% (2.2) and Monocytes 4.7% (2.19) while mean platelet count in venous blood was 265.76 × 103/dL (88.54). There was no significant difference between the cord blood value and the venous blood value of any of the above hematological parameters.
Conclusions: This study shows that there is no difference in the hematological parameters tested in cord blood or venous blood collected within six hours of birth in full-term neonates. Larger studies are needed to confirm this finding and evaluate the benefits to neonates after which cord blood testing can routinely substitute venous blood testing for these hematological parameters in neonates with conditions as described in this study.
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