Intracranial hemorrhages in infants of diabetic mothers: A national cohort study

Objective: To assess the association of maternal diabetes mellitus (DM) with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and other intracranial hemorrhages (ICH) in newborns.

Study design: We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample dataset and compared prevalence of IVH and other subtypes of ICH in infants of diabetic mothers (IDMs) vs. those born to mothers without DM. Regression models were used to control for demographic and clinical confounding variables.

Result: A total of 11,318,691 infants were included. Compared to controls, IDMs had increased prevalence of IVH (aOR = 1.18, CI: 1.12-1.23, p < 0.001) and other ICH (aOR = 1.18, CI: 1.07-1.31, p = 0.001). Severe IVH (grades 3 & 4) was encountered less frequently in IDMs (aOR = 0.75, CI: 0.66-0.85, p < 0.001) than controls. Gestational DM was not associated with increased IVH after controlling for the demographic, clinical and perinatal confounders in the logistic regression model (aOR = 1.04, CI: 0.98-1.11, p = 0.22).

Conclusion: Chronic maternal DM is associated with increased neonatal IVH and other ICH but not severe IVH. This association needs to be confirmed in further studies.