Clinical Study On The Relation Between The Vitamin A Status And Neonatal Diseases

Objective To evaluate the relation between the vitamin A status andneonatal diseases.Methods One hundred and sixty-nine neonates hospitalized fromMay2013to August2013were examined for plasma retinol concentration.Plasma retinol level was detected by using high-performance liquidchromatography（HPLC）.Results According to current cut-off criteria, the incidence ofdeficiency of vitamin A is as high as96.4%（163/169）. Retinol level hadnegative relation with the incidence of neonatal pneumonia, when≤0.35μmol/L,~0.7μmol/L and＞0.7μmol/L, the incidence of neonatalpneumonia was92%(46/50)，34.3%(24/70) and0(0/5), separately. Therewere6of9pairs of twins that basic serum retinol levels of the one infantwho had pneumonia was lower than the another sibling. Basic serumretinol levels in neonatal control group were （0.5089±0.1619）μmol/L,while in neonatal septicemia group only （0.4149±0.1281） μmol/L(t=-2.076,P=0.042).Basic serum retinol levels in neonatal pneumoniaassociated with septicemia group were（0.2729±0.1112）μmol/L, while in control group just（0.5089±0.1619）μmol/L (t=-5.303,P＜0.05),and the6neonates who had normal serum retinol levels didn’t developed intosepticemia. Retinol level had positive relation with birth weight，β=0.234，P=0.043.No relation on the basic retinol levels was showed between thegender, mode of delivery and parity and etc. Basic retinol levels had noinfluence on length of stay and clinical outcomes including neonatalrespiratory distress syndrome and severity of neonatal pneumonia.Conclusion Neonatal pneumonia and septicemia were involved with thedeficiency of vitamin A. Infants have a poor vitamin A nutritional status inthe infectious diseases such as pneumonia and septicemia which wassuggested that we improve the nutrition of vitamin A in neonates.