This study suggests that cysC is not more sensitive than Cr as a marker of GFR in the newborn.

No abstract

In our region, general ultrasound hip screening of newborns for DDH seems to be effective in reducing the overall treatment rate. The number of surgical procedures has remained stable during the past nine-year screening period and is lower than in the pre-ultrasound era.

No abstract

We evaluated cystatin-C (cysC) in the umbilical blood as a predictor of acute kidney injury (AKI) after perinatal hypoxia/asphyxia compared with creatinine (Cr). One hundred full-term newborns were enrolled in the study (50 in a group affected by perinatal hypoxia/asphyxia [AS] and 50 controls). CysC and Cr were measured in blood samples from the umbilical cord at birth (cysC-umb and Cr-umb) and from a peripheral vein 3 days later (cysC-3 and Cr-3). At birth, the mean level of cysC in healthy term babies was found to be 1.39 ± 0.19 mg/L and 1.34 ± 0.21 mg/L after 3 days of life, not significantly decreased (P = 0.137). The mean of cysC in the AS group was 2.12 ± 0.53 mg/L in cord blood and 1.56 ± 0.32 g/L in day 3 blood samples, also decreased (P < 0.001) and different from the control (P < 0.001). Cr levels, determined simultaneously at birth were different (P = 0.001) between the control (62.74 ± 12.84 μmol/L) and AS (72.60 ± 15.55 μmol/L) group, significantly decreased after 3 days in both groups (P < 0.001). The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, comparing AS and the control group, showed area under the curve for cysC-umb, cysC-3, Cr-umb and Cr-3 (0.918; 0.698; 0.692; 0.660). The highest diagnostic accuracy was achieved with a chosen cut-off for cysC-umb of 1.67 mg/L (sensitivity of 84.0%, specificity of 90.0%) or 1.69 mg/L (sensitivity of 82.0%, specificity of 94.0%). Our results indicate serum CysC is a more sensitive marker of glomerular filtration rate than Cr in the newborns.