Biological Reference Interval for Hematological Profile of Umbilical Cord Blood: A Study Conducted at A Tertiary Care Centre in South India.

Introduction: Umbilical cord blood (UCB) a source of hematopoietic stem cells, is also an acceptable sample to assess neonatal sepsis. Though reports are available for stem cell counts very minimal literature is available regarding hematologic parameters, which may vary on ethnicity.

Aim: To establish biological reference interval for hematological parameters of umbilical cord blood to guide neonatologists, hematopoietic stem cell transplant specialists and future analysis.

Materials And Methods: Prospective longitudinal study was done from January 2014 to April 2014 after ethics committee approval. UCB from 120 full term new borns of normal birth weight born out of uneventful pregnancy to mothers aged between 21 to 45 years with hemoglobin above 10g/dL were processed in Beckman Coulter LH780 analyzer for complete blood count and counter checked by peripheral smear. Results tabulated in Microsoft excel are analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics 16 software.

Results: Male to female ratio is 1:1.05. There is no difference in the values between males and females. When compared with few studies available, though many values are comparable a few values are not comparable.

Conclusion: This study can be a useful guide to neonatologists, hematopoietic stem cells transplant hematologists and future analysis.