Early and late complications of hyperglycemic extremely low birth-weight infants

Abstract

Introduction: During recent decades, the perinatal mortality of extremely low-birth weight infants has decreased. An important task is to recognize complications of prematurity. Aim: We made an attempt to explore the relationship between complications of prematurity and neonatal hyperglycemia. Method: From 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017, 188 infants with birth weight below 1000 g were admitted. For each infant, the frequencies of hyperglycemia (blood glucose >8.5 mmol/l), retinopathy of prematurity, intraventricular hemorrhage, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia were determined. Animal studies were performed in Sprague Dawley rats. Hyperglycemia was achieved by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (100 mg/kg). On the 7th day of life, aorta sections were prepared and stained with hematoxylin eosin. Wall thickness was measured using QCapture Pro 7 image analysis software. Results: The mean ± SD gestational age and birth weight were 27.1 ± 2.2 weeks and 814.9 ± 151.9 g; 33 infants (17.5%) died. Hyperglycemia was confirmed in 62 cases (32.9%), and insulin treatment was given to 43 infants (22.8%). The gestational age and birth weight of the hyperglycemic infants were significantly lower (p<0.001), the incidence of severe retinopathy (p = 0.012) and the mortality of insulin-treated patients were higher (p = 0.02) than in normoglycemic infants. Among survivors (n = 155), we found by logistic regression analysis that hyperglycemia was a risk factor for severe retinopathy (p<0.001). In the rat model, neonatal hyperglycemia caused significant thickening of the aortic wall. Conclusion: Our studies indicate that hyperglycemia is common in extremely low birth-weight infants. Monitoring of these infants for retinopathy of prematurity, kidney dysfunction, and hypertension is recommended.