Hypoglycaemia in fasting low birth weight infants in Jos, Nigeria

Background/Objective: Low birth weight (LBW) infants are commonly at risk of hypoglycaemia. The prevalence of hypoglycaemia and its neurological features in fasting LBW infants below 24 hours of age was assessed. Methods: Low birth weight (LBW) infants seen within 24 hours of birth who had not fed or received glucose drinks were considered for recruitment. Blood sugar was assessed using Refloflux Glucometer at point of recruitment. Hypoglycaemic infants (defined as blood sugar below 2.2 mmol/l) were treated according to standard protocol. Blood sugar was repeated 2 hours later to ensure correction. Results: All forty eligible infants were recruited from 155 LBW infants in 31.57 weeks, giving a fasting incidence of 25.81%. Median age at presentation was 2.5 (range 0.33 to 19) hours. Mean birth weight was 1.413±0.3194 (range 0.904 to 2.200) kg. Incidence of hypoglycaemia was 65% overall, 67.9% in preterms, 60% in preterm SGA and 50% in term SGA infants. Maturity, place of birth, time of presentation, birth weight, parity and age of mother were not significant risk factors for hypoglycaemia. Hypoglycaemia was corrected within 2 hours of therapy in all infants. No infant demonstrated any neurological feature of hypoglycaemia. Mean PCV was 51.2±8.5% (range 33 to 65%). Conclusion: Hypoglycaemia is very common in fasting LBW infants, and was not shown to manifest with any neurological features in this population. Absence of neurological features of hypoglycaemia needs further investigation. Early feeding of LBW infants needs further emphasis