Objective: To investigate the relationship between blood glucose fluctuation and brain damage in the hypoglycemia neonates.
Study design: A retrospective study including all neonates hospitalized due to hypoglycemia from September 2013 to August 2016 was performed. All the 58 hypoglycemia infants were divided into two groups-the brain-damaged group and the nonbrain-damaged group, according to head magnetic resonance imaging and/or amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram. Relationship between glucose variability and brain damage and whether these variation indexes could act as early indicators for hypoglycemic brain damage were investigated.
Results: Of the 13 brain-damaged cases, the lowest blood glucose (LBG) level was lower, while duration of hypoglycemia was longer compared with the 45 nonbrain-damaged cases (p < 0.001). The largest amplitude of glycemic excursions, standard deviation of blood glucose, and mean amplitude of glycemic excursions (MAGE) of the brain-damaged group were higher (p < 0.001). Under receiver-operating characteristic curve, values of area under the curve of MAGE were 0.892, duration of hypoglycemia was 0.921, and LBG was 0.109 (p < 0.0001).
Conclusion: Brain damage of the hypoglycemia neonates relates not only with LBG and duration of hypoglycemia but also with the blood glucose variation indexes; MAGE and duration of hypoglycemia could act as predictors for brain damage.
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