Thrombocytopenia in neonatal intensive care unit at a tertiary care hospital of South Punjab, Pakistan.

Objective: To find out fetal and maternal factors linked with thrombocytopenia (TCP) among neonates admitted in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a tertiary care hospital of South Punjab, Pakistan. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: The NICU of Sadiq Abbasi Hospital, Bahawalpur. Period: May 2022 to August 2022. Material & Methods: A total of 146 neonates of both genders admitted to NICU having TCP were analyzed. Neonatal TCP was categorized as mild (>100,000/ul to < 150,000/ul), moderate (>50,000/ul to 100,000/ul) and severe (<50,000/ul). Associations of baseline characteristics, fetal factors and maternal factors with categories of TCP were checked applying chi-square test considering p-value ≤0.05 as significant. Results: In a total of 147 neonates with TCP, 84 (57.5%) were male. Mean age was calculated to be 3.9±3.6 days while 109 (74.7%) neonates were aged between 1 to 3 days. Distribution of TCP categories showed that 78 (53.4%) neonates were having mild TCP, 43 (29.5%) moderate TCP whereas remaining 25 (17.1%) neonates were having severe TCP. Stratification of TCP with respect study variables showed that maternal anemia (p=0.0467), pre-term birth (0.0001) and sepsis (p<0.0001) among neonates were significantly linked with severity of TCP. Conclusion: Most neonates admitted to NICU were having mild to moderate degree of thrombocytopenia. Severe degree of thrombocytopenia was found among neonates with history of maternal anemia, pre-term birth and sepsis.