[ prevalence, intensity and some risk factors of retinopathy of premature newborns in Taleghani Hospital, Gorgan, Iran]

Retinopathy of permaturity [ROP], a lesion in the retina of premature infants with low birth weights, can result in blindness and it is a major cause of blindness in children of developing countries. We were ought to determine prevalence and intensity of retinopathy of permaturity and investigate some related risk factors in NICU of Taleghani hospital. In this descriptive study, from March 2004 to December 2005, the result of clinical examinations and laboratory of 89 premature infants with gestational ages of less than 34 weeks old were recorded in a questionnaire form. These infants, were examined by a retinologist, at the time of discharge and if necessary every 4 weeks, until retinal vascularization completed. The results of examination were recorded. Retinopathy of permaturity was detected in 5 neonates; all of them in stage 1 and the most percent of prevalence in neonates with birthweights between 1001 to 1250 grams and gestational ages less than 29-week old. All cases were oxygenated and prevalence was more in the group who got oxygen via CPAP. Based upon this study, the most important risk factors for retinopathy of permaturity were lower birthweight and less gestational age. Moreover, it was one more time emphasized on the effect of oxygenation in developing retinopathy of permaturity

[ evaluation of predicting mortality risk of premature infants with very low birthweight by CRIB score]

To evaluate the effectiveness of Neonatal Intensive Cares Many different data banks have been developed. Furthermore, various scoring systems such as SNAP and CRIB have been validated to designate and compared differences among hospitalized patients in NICU. This study was done to determine mortality rate and prevalence of complications in neonates admitted to Taleghani and Dezyani NICU centers in Gorgan - Iran. In this descriptive study a questionnaire including sex, birth weight, gestational age, duration of hospitalization, age at the time of discharge or death, complications and other information needed for CRIB scoring system, was completed for 46 neonates with gestational age of less than 37-week old and birth weight of less than 1500 grams. Mortality rate was 37% [17 neonates] with the most common cause being respiratory failure. RDS was associated with a 101-fold increase for the chance of death [OR=1.1, CI=12.9 793.6]. This probability was 4.7 fold for delivery-time asphyxia. The mean of birth weight, gestational age and CRIB in living and dead infants were 1201 and 934 grams, 30 and 28 weeks and 3.76 and 11.7, respectively. Using a ROC curve, a cut off point of 7 was reached to predict neonatal outcome for CRIB scoring. This study showed that the mortality rate was higher than the rate in most centers of the world. The mortality rate was directly related with the increase of CRIB score, especially for scores more than 11