ABSTR AC T IntroductionThe objective of the analysis was to examine the epidemiological aspects of maternal alloimmunization and to determine the most common antibody specificities resulting in hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). Materials and MethodsThe retrospective epidemiological study encompasses all pregnant women who underwent immunohematological screening and the newborn treated for HDN in the period from 2000 to 2013 in the Herzegovina region. ResultsThe indirect Coombs test (ICT) detected antibodies against antigens in 384 (2.4 %) pregnant women of the 18 800 who were tested at the Department of Transfusion Medicine. The direct Coombs test (DCT) detected antibodies against antigens in 160 (0.8 %) newborn treated for HDN. The results of our 13-year study, in which 60 % of the pregnant women had non-RhD antibodies, confirms this finding.Conclusion However, we have reached the 21st century and the burden of alloimmunisation in pregnancy is still on our backs. The problem of immunization and HDN is still present in our region, which is a neonatal and public health problem.

The aim of this research is to analyze the characteristics of children immunized during immunization season, and their readmission to hospital due to infections of the respiratory tract in the period from 2008 to 2016. The retrospective cohort study included 101 children. The test group consists of infants who met the strict criteria for immunization. The national guidance was determined on the basis of earlier research and recommendations by the AAP. All the children who had been readmitted for hospitalization were quickly tested for RSV. Of this total, 47 children were preterm children (46.5%), 43 (42.5%) were children with CHD, and 11 (11%) exhibited other individual risk factors (gestational age 33-34 weeks, neurological disorders, respiratory anomalies, multi-organ anomalies). 25 (24%) patients of the immunized study population readmitted the ward due to respiratory infections. Of these, 50% were under the age of 6 months and were treated for less than a week on average. Upon readmission, a quick test to diagnose for RSV infections was conducted, which was negative for all of the previously immunized children. Palivizumab represents an effective prevention to avoid RSV infections, that significantly contributes to mortality for children at risk, especially in developing countries.

Objective Cystatin C (Cys-C) concentration has not been examined sufficiently among healthy newborn population, particularly in terms of reference values. This study aimed to establish gender-, postnatal age- and birth weight-specific Cys-C concentration for healthy term newborns. Its objective was also to examine if there were any differences between our measured concentration and the reference interval established by the CALIPER study. Methods Serum samples from a total of 90 healthy term newborns were used to determine Cys-C concentration. Cys-C was measured within first three days of birth using particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (PETIA) on the Architect plus ci8200 analyzer. Results Median concentration of the Cys-C was 2.05 mg/L. There were no statistically significant differences in Cys-C concentration regarding gender (p=0.779), birth weight (p=0.505), postnatal age (p=0.512) or Apgar score (p=0.799). The value of the 2.5th and 97.5th percentile for Cys-C concentrations for girls was 0.93–3.15 mg/L and for boys it was 1.5–3.36 mg/L. Conclusion Cys-C concentration in healthy term newborns does not depend on gender, birth weight, postnatal age, or Apgar score. Our measured concentration range of CyS-C in healthy newborns turned out to be slightly wider than the interval determined in the CALIPER study.

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the effect of body mass index (BMI) during pregnancy in laboratory parameters in the serum of the three groups of pregnant women and in their newborns. Methods This prospective study is comparison between the three groups of pregnant women and their newborns categorized according to their BMI. The study included 128 pregnant women and their newborns. In this study, the concentration of blood count, iron, ferritin, and bilirubin were analyzed in the subjects. Results The pregnant women in the three groups significantly differ in the values of blood count (p < 0.001). Statistically significant difference in iron and ferritin was not found between individual three studied groups of pregnant women (p = 0.947). The newborn of the first group of pregnant women had significantly lower values of ferritin (p < 0.001), leucocytes (p < 0.001), and bilirubin (p < 0.001). Significant positive correlation between BMI of pregnant women and leucocytes, ferritin, and bilirubin of the newborn was found (p < 0.001). Conclusion In this study, the tested pregnant women do not have biochemical signs of anemia, neither do their newborns. It was noted that there was no negative correlation between individual tested biochemical parameters for anemia in pregnant women and their newborns.