title: Umbilical cord blood as a replacement source for admission complete blood count in premature infants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We hypothesize that a complete blood count (CBC) with manual differential from umbilical cord blood is equivalent to a CBC with manual differential obtained from the neonate on admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  A CBC and manual differential was performed on 174 paired umbilical cord blood and admission blood samples from infants <35 weeks gestation. Paired t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient were the primary statistical tools used for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cord and admission blood white blood cell (WBC) count, hemoglobin and platelet count all significantly (P<0.0001) correlated with paired neonatal samples (R=0.82, 0.72, 0.76). Admission blood WBC count fell within the variation of WBC count values from currently accepted neonatal admission blood sources. Cord blood hemoglobin was not clinically different than admission hemoglobin (1.0 g dl(-1)). Cord blood platelet counts were not different from admission blood platelet counts (5800 cells per μl, P=0.23). The immature to total granulocyte ratio was not different between samples (P=0.34).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Umbilical cord blood can be used for admission CBC and differential in premature infants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Nationwide Children's Hospital/The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. patrick.carroll@imail.org
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Nankervis
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Iams
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kelleher
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010343:Patient Admission; D010976:Platelet Count; D012016:Reference Values; D013048:Specimen Handling; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins