ABSTRACT
Introduction: Perinatal asphyxia has become the leadingcause of death for newborns. Since the parameters that arebeing routinely used as a predictor for perinatal asphyxia suchas thick meconium stained liquor, non-reassuring fetal heartpatterns, low Apgar scores, fetal or cord blood pH do notshow consistent correlation with fetal acidosis but nucleatedred blood cell counts in umbilical venous blood of neonateshas been reported as a possible marker of perinatal asphyxia.The number of nucleated red blood cells (nRBCs)/100 whiteblood cells is variable but is rarely greater than 10 in normalneonates. The aim of this study was to study the using ofnucleated red blood cells in umbilical cord blood of newbornsas an indicator for perinatal asphyxia.Material and methods: The study comprised of intramuralterm neonates with and without asphyxia. It was a casecontrol study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics incollaboration with Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,Rohilkhand Medical College and hospital, Bareilly fromNovember 2017 to October 2018. There were 50 asphyxiatednewborns and 50 healthy newborns in the study. The meanlevels of nRBCs in cord blood were significantly higher(p value<0.001) in the asphyxial group (54.06+-22.42) ascompared to control group (10.32+-5.86).Results: Nucleated red blood cells were found to be stronglyassociated with perinatal asphyxia. The mean values of cordblood nRBCs in cases were 54.06+-22.42 and in controlgroup were 10.32+-5.86. The p value being <0.001 which wasstatistically significant indicating the correlation.Conclusions: Therefore it was concluded that nucleated redblood cells in umbilical cord blood of newborns can be used asan effective test for prediction of perinatal asphyxia.