International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | September-October 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 5 Page 1805 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Kumar A et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2018 Sep;5(5):1805-1810 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article Cord blood nucleated red blood cell count as a predictor of long term sequelae in cases of perinatal asphyxia: a one-year follow-up study Ashok Kumar, Rupa Dalmia Singh*, Shashank Suryavanshi, Kriti Mohan INTRODUCTION Perinatal asphyxia is a major cause of neonatal mortality and long term neurological disability amongst survivors. It affects about 2-10% births and kills about 19% of over 5 million newborns every year-round the globe. 1,2 Indian data of neonatal deaths also indicates 20% contribution of perinatal asphyxia. 3 Nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) can be easily found in neonatal blood and its count in neonatal umbilical venous blood has been distinguished as a marker of perinatal asphyxia. 4 The NRBCs per hundred white blood cells are seldom more than ten in normal newborns. 5 It has been proposed that perinatal asphyxia caused an increased production of erythropoietin leading to increase in number of nucleated RBCs. NRBCs can be easily detected through simple diagnostic tests even at primary health centre level and thus helps in diagnosing the condition. Various studies have been conducted to find out NRBCs as the predictor of severity of perinatal asphyxia at birth. Authors conducted this study to find out if there exists a relation between NRBC counts at birth and its effects on long term neurological outcome in patients of perinatal asphyxia. METHODS This was a prospective longitudinal study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics in collaboration with Department of Pediatrics, G. S. V. M. Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India Received: 27 March 2018 Revised: 05 May 2018 Accepted: 26 June 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. Rupa Dalmia Singh, E-mail: drrupa@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: Nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) can be easily found in cord blood and its >20/100 WBCs has been distinguished as a marker of perinatal asphyxia at birth. Authors conducted this study to find out if there exists a relation between NRBCs at birth and its effects on long term neurological outcome in patients of perinatal asphyxia. Methods: This was a prospective longitudinal study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics in collaboration with Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur from December 2014 to September 2016. Results: On assessing the long term neurodevelopmental outcome in newborns with HIE at birth, Authors found that cord blood NRBCs had no direct influence on the final neurodevelopmental outcome at 1 year of life as did HIE staging. Conclusions: Authors propose that cord blood NRBC counts of > 20/100 WBCs is a good predictor of asphyxia at birth but is definitely not an indicator of forth coming developmental delay. Keywords: Long term neurodevelopmental outcome, Nucleated RBCs, Perinatal asphyxia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20183510