الفهرس 
PREMATURITYOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
P
remature infants constitute a large percentage of high risk neonates with high morbidity and mortality, The lower the birth weight the higher the neonatal mortality
Periventricular area is the site of embryonal neurons and fetal glial cells, which migrate outwardly to the cortex. Immature blood vessels in this highly vascular area may be subjected to various forces that, together with poor tissue support predispose premature infants to intraventricular hemorrhage.
The present study was designed to evaluate the use of plasma Activin A concentrations to predict the development of intraventricular hemorrhage in preterm newborn.
The study included 44 preterm neonate ≤ 34 weeks of gestation. They were divided into study and control groups according to whether they develop intraventricular hemorrhage or not.
All patients were subjected to adequate history taking, full clinical examination, CBC, CRP with titre, transcranial ultrasound within the first 48 hours and at the age of 1week to determine the incidence of intracranial hemorrhage and measurement of plasma Activin A concentration in the first day of life.
In our study we found that preterms who developed IVH had a significantly higher plasma Activin A concentration than controls.
Also we found that there were no significant correlation between plasma Activin A concentration and gestational age birth weight, Apgar score at 1 and 5 minutes and various laboratory parameters in cases and control groups except for Hb% of control group which had significant positive correlation with Activin A level.
There was a strong positive correlation between plasma Activin concentration and IVH grading, the higher the IVH grade, the higher the Activin concentration. Preterms who developed convulsions had a higher plasma Activin A level than those who did not develop convulsions, but this was significant only in cases group.
Also, preterms who died had a significantly higher plasma Activin A level than survivors in cases group.
Our study also revealed that Activin A showed 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity in predicting IVH in preterm newborn.
To conclude, our study revealed that measurement of plasma Activin A level in the first day of life is a perfect test, and it can be used as a good predictor for intraventricular hemorrhage.