Haematological Reference Ranges in Healthy Term Neonates in a Tertiary Health Care Centre Northeastern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The  formation  of  blood  in  neonates  needs extensive  study  because  of  dependence  on maternal nutrition. Although haematological parameters for different age groups are important in clinical decision making, there is a dearth  of  locally-relevant data  especially  in Northeastern Nigeria.

Aim: To  determine the  reference  ranges  of  some haematological  parameters  of  neonatal  cord blood in Northeastern Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: Cord blood samples of 174 apparently healthy neonates delivered in Federal Medical Centre 
(FMC), Nguru, Yobe State, irrespective of mode of delivery in July to October 2015 were sampled. Health and Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained. All neonates had complete blood counts (CBC) determined by automated haematology analyzer. Reference  Value  Advisor  v2.1  was  used  to compute 95% Reference Intervals (RIs) using Robust  Methods.  The precision of the upper and  lower  limits  was  assessed  by  computing 90% Confidence Intervals (CIs) for each limit.

Results: The mean ± standard deviation of the haematological parameters at birth were haematocrit: 45.8±8.5%, reticulocytes: 4.9±1.4%,  mean  corpuscular  volume  (MCV): 106.4±8.7fL,  mean  corpuscular  haemoglobin (MCH): 34.4±2.3pg, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC): 32.5±1.8g/L,  white  blood  cell  count  (WBC): 9 13.2±5.2 x 10 /L, Neutrophils: 50.8±13.8%, Lymphocytes: 42.7±11.6% and platelets: 9 355.1±152.0  x  10 /L.  The  RI  for  haematocrit, WBC and platelet counts were 28.6% to 62.4%, 9 9 5.4 to 26.0 x 10 /L and 139.0 to 758.0 x 10 /L respectively. Other RI were reticulocytes 2.5 to 8.0%,  MCV  87.0  to  124.7fL,  MCH  29.4  to 38.3pg,  MCHC  28.9  to  36.0g/L,  Neutrophils 34.9 to 82.0% and Lymphocytes 18.5 to 59.6%.

Conclusion:  The  values  obtained  from  this study are useful as neonatal reference ranges. We suggest validation in a different cohort of neonates.