Risk factors of germinal matrix intraventricular hemorrhage in premature infants.

Objective: To determine whether some clinical parameters can be used to predict the hemorrhage and whether the relationship between these clinical variables and the grades of hemorrhage is linear.

Methods: A total of 230 premature infants, born at a gestational age less than 34 weeks were retrospectively reviewed. Germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage (GM-IVH), the grade of the hemorrhage, and clinical data were assessed with a checklist. Variables were analyzed by using Mann Whitney U and Fisher's exact tests and then multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the independent risk factors.

Findings: Resuscitation, gestational age, hypotension, multiple birth, and birth weight were found to be independent risk factors. We determined non-linear relationship between the grades of hemorrhage and the clinical parameters. But when we classified hemorrhages as grade 1, grade 2-3 and grade 4, the relationships were found linear.

Conclusion: Premature infants who had resuscitation, low gestational age, hypotension, multiple birth, and low birth weight are more likely to have GM-IVH. The relationship between the clinical variables and the grades of GM-IVH does not seem to be linear.