All issues > Volume 37(7); 1994

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1994;37(7):928-936. Published online July 15, 1994.

The Biochemical and Bacteriological Study of the Umbilical Venous Blood for Autologous Transfusion in Neonates

Son Moon SM Shin¹, Kwang Hae KH Choi¹, Hyun Mo HM Gu¹, Jeong Ok JO Hah¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu,Korea

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the safety of the umbilical venous blood for antologous transfusion in the premature newborn babies. Umbilical venous blood was collected with aseptic technique immediately after delivery from 270 healthy mothers admitted to the Yeungnam University Hospital between March 1, 1992 and August 31, 1992. The volume of the blood and the time taken for collecting the blood were measured. Also the hematological and biochemical changes of the blood during storage in the refrigerator of blood bank and the incidence of bacterial contamination were studied. It took 67.6¡¾25.9 seconds on the average for collecting the blood from an umbilical vein and the average volume of the blood was 77.1¡¾23.2ml which would be sufficient volume for one time transfusion of 10ml/kg of packed red blood cells for the neonates. The hemoglobin and hematocrit values did not change significantly during storage for three weeks. Thus significant hemolysis did not seem to occur during storage. However, platelet counts decreased significantly from 248¡¾59¡¿103/mm3 to 193¡¾47¡¿103/mm3(p<0.01). Although plasma calcium level was not changed(8.4¡¾0.9mg/dL), sodium was decreased significantly from 184.3¡¾11.1mEq/L to 170.9¡¾13.9mEq/L(p<0.01)and potassium was incresed from 5.0¡¾1.0mEq/L to 26.7¡¾4.8mEq/L.(p<0.01). Plasma glucose level was decreased from 521.7¡¾106.7mEq/L to 294.3¡¾120.8mEq/L (p<0.01), blood pH and bicarbonate concentrations were decreased significantly from 6.825¡¾0.110 to 6.378¡¾0.087 from 13.5¡¾1.6mEq/L to 2.1¡¾1.0mEq/L respectively(p<0.01). The smear of the umbilical venous blood and peripheral blood of the neonates stained by kleihauer-Betke method revealed no significant differences in the percentages of adult red blood cells. Also there were no differences in the percentages of adult red blood cells in the umbilical venous blood samples according to time for collection. The degree of decrement of hemoglobins(1.2gm/dL) after delivery in the mothers who had sampling of the umbilical venous blood was not different from that in the mothers who didn뭩 have sampling. The bacterial contamination rate of the umbilical venous blood was 3.5%(95% confidence interval was from 0.7 to 6.3). It seems to be safe to use the umbilical venous blood in the neonates for autologous transfusion but confirmation of bacterial contamination by culture is necessary.

Keywords :Autologous transfusion, Umbilical venous blood