ESTIMATION OF VARIATION OF BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF COVID-NEGATIVE NEONATES BORN OF COVID INFECTED MOTHERS

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020. Due to the sudden incidence and high pathogenicity, there is little knowledge about the risk of infection by the virus to pregnant women and parturient. The issues pertaining to transplacental transfer and also there is lack of clarity on potential complications of SARS-CoV-2 coagulopathy.The report about the inuence of COVID-19 on pregnant women and their babies is very limited . Moreover, it is not clear the effects covid infected mothers (anytime in the 2nd or 3rd trimester of the gestational period) will have on the physiological status of the infants who themselves have not been infected by Covid-19. This study has been designed to assess any difference or deviation in the biochemical parameters of a COVID negative infant of a COVID infected mother during any time of her pregnancy from the values usually observed from the study of biochemical parameters of a neonate born of non-COVID infected mother based on history taking and checking of reports for RTPCR and Rapid Antigens Test for COVID 19. At the initial level the study population was distributed into two groups of 50 mothers each, 1st group consisted of mothers infected by COVID 19 and 2nd group consisted of mothers not infected by COVID 19 during pregnancy. The neonatal biochemical parameters were evaluated based on the data gathered from cord blood sample analyses. The primary objective for conducting this study will be to estimate the incidence of any altered amount of D-dimer, Procalcitonin, CRP, ALT, AST, ALP, Direct bilirubin, Indirect Bilirubin, PT/INR in non-covid infants born of covid mothers versus non-covid infants born of non-covid mothers. This study found that the neonates who were COVID negative despite having COVID infected mothers did not have any stark variation in the values of biochemical parameters as compared to the control neonates of this study group. However, since COVID is a relatively new disease with little knowledge about its consequences the maternal COVID status may have an impact on neonatal health in the long run. So, as far as possible the regular periodic health check up and screening of the aforementioned biochemical parameters of these neonates should be followed consistently.