Umbilical Cord Blood Haematological Parameters Reference Interval for New-borns in St. Peter Specialized Hospital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Several factors like altitude, age, sex, pregnancy, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and race influence haematological reference interval (RIs), which are critical to support appropriate clinical decisions and to interpret laboratory data in research. Currently there are no well-established RIs for cord blood haematological parameters of new-borns in Ethiopia. \nObjective: To generate reference interval for umbilical cord blood haematological parameters of new-borns at St Peter Specialized Hospital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. \nMethod: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 1 to March 31, 2019 on healthy, term new-borns (37-42 weeks) with normal birth weight born to apparently healthy pregnant mothers who had met the eligibility criteria. From a total of 139 new-borns, 2-3ml cord blood was immediately collected from the clumped cord using EDTA tube. The samples were analysed using Sysmex KX 21 Hematology analyser. Data was entered and the 2.5th and 97.5th percentile (upper and lower reference limit) were determined using nonparametric method by SPSS version 23. The non-parametric independent Mann- Whitney U test (Wilcoxon rank-sum test) was used to compare the distribution of the parameters between genders, modes of deliveries and gestational age groups. \nResult: The combined reference interval for umbilical cord blood haematological parameters of new-borns with the median and 95% reference value of cord blood parameters were as follows for WBC= 12.4 [6.55-19.35], RBC= 4.51 [3.55-5.52], HGB= 15.80 [12.41-19.65], HCT= 45.9[37.9-56.3],MCV=102.10[83.90-111.55], MCH= 35.30 [29.35-39.10], MCHC= 34.3 [32.3-37.40], PLT= 236 [146-438], LYM= 37.5% [16.6-63.0%], MXD= 7.9%[1.65-15.75%],NEU= 53.7%[30.3-78.3], RDW=15.6[12.0-19.0], PDW=11.0[9.1-15.7] and MPV= 9.4[8.1-11.8]. The current study \nfound no significance difference between genders, except RDW (P=0.01) and gestational age group, but there was significance difference for WBC (p=0.007), RBC (p=0.018) and Absolute NEU (p=0.001). \nConclusion: Since this study is pioneer of its kind with regards to haematological reference intervals in cord blood, the values obtained from our study provide reference intervals for some haematological parameters in healthy newborns of Addis Ababa and its surrounding special whereas. However, the results need to be confirmed by larger samples from different centres throughout the country.