ESPE Abstracts

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the incidence of early neonatal hypoglycemia and to confirm potential risk factors.

Study design: The study was conducted at a tertiary Medical Center in Qatar. between January 2018 and December 2019. First blood glucose concentrations of all infants admitted to the nursery were measured using a "point of care" analyzer (Accu-Chek). We recorded risk factors for hypoglycemia such as birth weight, gestational age, and maternal diabetes. The diagnosis of hypoglycemia cutoffs was 47 mg/dl for full-term (FT) and 40 mg/dl for preterm infants.

Results: Of 16783 and 17000 newborns admitted during 2018 and 2019 respectively and were analyzed.

Discussion: A 1988 multicenter nutritional study by Lucas et al. suggested a blood glucose concentration <47 mg/dl as the critical threshold associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Even moderate hypoglycemia is associated with a considerable increase in adverse neurodevelopmental sequelae. Our annual incidence of neonatal hypoglycemia (4.1% and 6.3% in 2018 and 2019 respectively) is considerably low compared to previously reported incidence by Bromiker et al and Harris et al (12.1 % and 12.75% respectively) Incidence of early neonatal hypoglycemia and some risk factors in Qatar. A cohort study over two years (2018 and 2019)

Conclusions: We showed an increasing trend in the incidence of neonatal hypoglycemic in 2019 versus 2018. IDM constituted 64% and 66% of the total number of N hypoglycemia in 2018 and 2019 respectively.