Background: In a quest to improve the outcome of preterm neonates and to reduce neonatal mortality a lot of research has been done in the field of neonatology; one such intervention is the use of probiotics. We evaluated the role of probiotics in reducing the incidence and severity of NEC, sepsis, hyperbilirubinemia and in improving enteral feeds in preterms.Methods: A prospective randomized control trial was conducted in preterm neonates <37 weeks of gestation from December 2017 to November 2019. They were randomized into test and control groups. The neonates in the test group were fed with probiotics with breast milk twice daily till they reach full feeds. Babies in the control group were fed with breast milk alone. Various parameters were compared between two groups like incidence of NEC, sepsis etc.Results: Sixty preterm neonates were enrolled, 30 in the test group and 30 in the control group. The demographic and clinical variables were similar in both groups. The incidence of NEC and sepsis in the test group is less compared to the control group. Duration of phototherapy was less in test group (1.10.3 days) compared to control group (1.90.9 days). Duration of hospital stay in test group was less (8.92.1 days) compared to the control group (11.43.7 days).Conclusions: Prophylactic probiotics have a beneficial role in prevention of NEC and sepsis, reducing duration of phototherapy and duration of hospital stay in preterm neonates.

Background: Congenital hypothyroidism is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. Screening methods include measuring cord blood and venous blood TSH level. The objective of this study was to determine the impact if any of various risk factors affecting these levels.Methods: It was a cross sectional study done at our hospital and 263 cord blood samples were collected and TSH levels measured. The variables included in the study are parity of mother, GDM, mode of delivery, birth weight, gestational age, sex, weight appropriate for gestation, Apgar score.Results: In our study 35 among 263 cord blood samples were found to have CB TSH levels above the cut off value of 20 mIU/l and repeat venous sampling done on fifth day of life showed only one sample had high TSH with low free T4 levels and remaining 34 samples showed TSH levels which were significantly down from the earlier peak. The p value, ROC curve, test of significance and criterion cut off levels were made for each of the variables mentioned above. Among the variables studied, mode of delivery (<0.001), gestational age (p=0.001), low Apgar score (p=0.001) had p values which were statistically significant.Conclusions: Incidence of congenital hypothyroidism in our study is 0.0038%. There was no sexual predilection and the high cord blood TSH levels may be due to perinatal stress factors such as emergency LSCS, low Apgar score and prematurity which had significant positive correlation as evidenced with p values (≤0.001).