Reference intervals for complete blood count from Umbilical Cord Blood in newborns and comparison with Venous Blood Values

Background and Objective: Umbilical cord blood which can be obtained by a non-invasive method can be informative about the clinical status of the newborn. It was aimed to establish reference intervals for umbilical cord blood parameters, and to compare complete blood count results between umbilical cord and venous blood samples in this study.

Methods: This study was conducted at Medipol University Sefaköy Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Istanbul, Turkey. A total of 1898 newborns who were born in a two-year period between January 2018 and December 2019 were included in the study. Venous blood samples were taken from 184 of them, and umbilical cord blood samples were taken from 1714 newborns.

Results: The percentiles were determined according to gender and delivery method for the hematological parameters of umbilical cord blood. While mean platelet, eosinophil and mean corpuscular volume values ​​were similar between the groups (p>0.05 for each), and significant differences were found between the groups in terms of all other mean hematological parameters ​​(p<0.05 for each).

Conclusion: The results of the complete blood count of umbilical cord blood samples can provide reliable information about the newborn. There are significant differences between umbilical cord and venous blood samples in terms of hematological parameters. For these reasons, it is necessary to determine reliable value ranges for umbilical cord blood hematological parameters in newborns. Data of our study can be a guide for further studies and clinicians.