respectively.
The following definitions were used for the evaluation of the infants’ age during
hospital stay:
-
gestational age (GA, weeks) – time elapsed between the 1
st
day of the last
menstrual period and the day of delivery;
-
chronological age (CA, days) – time elapsed from birth;
-
postmenstrual age (PMA, weeks) – gestational age plus chronological age
The mean GA was 30±0.2 weeks in VLBW group vs 27±0.3 weeks in ELBW
group (p˂0.001).
Before the admission to neonatology department of the neonatal centre, 76.47%
of infants with ELBW and 39.13% of infants with VLBW required treatment in
neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the children hospital mainly due to mechanical
ventilation of lungs.
CA at admission to neonatology department was significantly different between
groups – twice higher in ELBW group (22.3±2.2 days in VLBW group vs 42.2±4.3
days in ELBW group (p<0.001)) while PMA at admission was the same (32.6±0.3
weeks vs 32.9±0.6 weeks respectively (p=0.66)).
At discharge both CA and PMA were significantly different between group:
62.2±2.5 days in VLBW group vs 89.7±3.3 days for in ELBW group (p<0.001) for
CA, and 38.4±0.4 weeks vs 39.8±0.5 weeks respectively (p=0.03) for PMA.
Evaluation of the main parameters of postnatal growth – body weight (BW), body
length (BL) and head circumference (HC) – was conducted at birth, at admission to
neonatology department of the neonatal centre of the children hospital in Kyiv and at
discharge home from the neonatal centre of the children hospital.
Postnatal growth restriction was determined when any of main parameters (BW,
BL or HC) was under 10
th
percentile by Fenton growth charts. Moderate growth
restriction was diagnosed in case of any parameter was in between of the 3
rd
the 9
th
percentile by Fenton growth charts. Severe growth restriction was determined if BW,
BL of HC were under the 3
rd
percentile by Fenton growth charts.
Main characteristics of infants from studied groups are presented in Table 1.
While BW, BL and HC at birth were significantly different between VLBW and
ELBW groups, no significant differences in BW and HC were identified at admission
to neonatology department except BL (40.0±0.3 cm for VLBW vs 37.7±0.5 cm for
ELBW group; p<0,001). At discharge from the neonatal centre, BW, BL and HC were
the same in both groups but the period of hospital stay for ELBW group was
significantly longer than for VLBW group (89.7±3.3 days vs 62.2±2.5 days
respectively; p<0,001). See Table 1.
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