Background When the newborn brain is exposed to hypoxia, as in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), it causes an inflammatory response. A wide variety of inflammatory markers are therefore used in the diagnosis of HIE. Objective We aimed to determine the diagnostic role of systemic inflammatory indices in infants with moderate-to-severe HIE. We have also investigated the effect of hypothermia treatment over those indices. Study Design A retrospective cohort study of infants suffering from moderate-to-severe HIE was conducted in a tertiary-level neonatal intensive care unit between September 2019 and March 2021. Systemic inflammatory indices including systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV), systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) were calculated for infants with HIE and controls at baseline, and after therapeutic hypothermia in those with HIE. Results A total of 103 infants (53 in the HIE group and 50 in the control group) were included in the study. Median gestational ages (GA) were 39 (37–40) and 38 (37–39) weeks, and median birth weights (BW) were 3,165 (2,890–3,440) and 3,045 (2,850–3,460) g in the HIE and control groups, respectively. GA, BW, mode of delivery, and gender of infants were similar between the groups. Infants in the HIE group had significantly higher NLR (p = 0.001), SII (p = 0.001), PIV (p = 0.001), and SIRI (p = 0.004) values when compared with the control group. Those indices decreased significantly after hypothermia treatment in the HIE group. Areas under curve for NLR, PLR, MLR, SII, SIRI, and PIV to predict HIE were found to be 0.808, 0.597, 0.653, 0.763, 0.686, and 0.663, respectively. Cutoff values having a good ability to predict HIE for SII and NLR were 410 and 1.12. Elevated NLR level above 1.12 was found to be an independent predictor for HIE, as revealed by multivariate analyses. No associations were found between systemic inflammatory indices and amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) patterns, presence of seizures, and death. Conclusion Systemic inflammatory indices may represent reliable and readily available predictors of HIE risk. NLR seems to be an independent factor in diagnosing moderate-to-severe HIE. Key Points

Objectives: Phototherapy is demonstrated to cause hypocalcemia by decreasing melatonin levels and increasing cortisol levels. However, the relationship between parathyroid hormone (PTH) level and calcium has not been previously evaluated in patients receiving phototherapy. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of phototherapy on ionized calcium (iCa), total calcium (tCa), corrected calcium (cCa), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), and PTH levels. Methods: Infants who were born at term and received inpatient phototherapy for indirect hyperbilirubinemia were included in our study. The patients’ gestational age, birth weight, and phototherapy durations were recorded. Total bilirubin, albumin, iCa, tCa, cCa, Mg, 25(OH)D, and PTH levels before and after phototherapy were compared. Laboratory results were also compared between patients who received phototherapy for ≤24 h, 25–47 h, and ≥48 h. Results: A total of 166 term infants were included in the study. The mean duration of phototherapy was 31.9 ± 9.2 h. Albumin levels before and after phototherapy were similar (p=0.246). However, there were significant decreases in iCa, tCa, cCa, Mg, 25(OH)D, and PTH levels after phototherapy (p<0.001), while P level was significantly increased after phototherapy (p24 h of phototherapy, while iCa, tCa, cCa, Mg, 25(OH)D, and PTH levels decreased significantly with ≥48 h of phototherapy (p=0.002, p=0.008, p=0.001, p=0.012, and p<0.001, respectively). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that PTH suppression is one of the causes of phototherapy-induced hypocalcemia.

Purpose: Cardiovascular dysfunction is common in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which is one of the leading causes of multi-organ failure in neonates. We aimed to assess troponin I and creatine kinase myocardial band (CK-MB) levels, inotropic score (IS) in HIE patients, and their associations with HIE staging and mortality. Method: The medical records of all HIE infants admitted to our unit between 2016 and 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic characteristics of the infants, seizures, anticonvulsive therapies, maximum inotrope doses, and the derived IS (dopamine dose [µg/kg/min] + dobutamine dose [µg/kg/min] + 100 × epinephrine dose [µg/kg/min]) and CK-MB and troponin-I levels obtained in the first six hours of life were compared according to HIE staging. Comparisons between survivors and non-survivors were made. Results: The study included data from 195 patients. Twenty-five patients were classified as stage 3, 116 as stage 2, and 54 as stage 1 HIE. Median Troponin-I, CK-MB level, and IS significantly differed by HIE staging (p < 0.01). The deceased infants had significantly higher median troponin I level [0.36 (0.02-3) vs. 0.16 (0.01–1.1) ng/ml; p = 0.006], median IS [20 (5-120) vs. 5 (5–10); p < 0.001], however, CK-MB values were comparable with survivors [129 (51–300) vs. 60.7 (31–300) ng/ml; p = 0.57]. The area under the curve was 0.93 for IS and 0.81 for Troponin I to predict mortality. Conclusion: Troponin I, CK-MB, and IS could be successfully used as disease severity markers in HIE furthermore, troponin I and IS, are good predictors of mortality. These results need to be confirmed with larger prospective multi-center studies.

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) has a high risk of mortality in addition to serious neurological damage. In this study, we investigated the values of umbilical cord netrin-1 (NT-1) and neuron...