Hepatic dysfunction in asphyxiated neonates: prospective case-controlled study

This study was performed to determine the occurrence of hypoxic hepatitis in full-term neonates after perinatal asphyxia and to correlate between the rise in enzymes and severity of asphyxia with Apgar score and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) grading of the neonates.

This prospective case-controlled study was conducted in a tertiary-level hospital in India for a period of 12 months. The study group A comprised 70 newborns suffering from birth asphyxia, while 30 healthy neonates were included in group B (control). All biochemical parameters of liver function, ie, serum alanine transferase (ALT), aspartate transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), total protein, serum albumin, bilirubin (total and direct), and international normalized ratio (INR), were measured on postnatal days 1, 3, and 10 in both study and control groups.

In group A, 22.8% newborns had severe (Apgar score 0-3), 47.1% had moderate (Apgar score 4-5), and 30% had mild (Apgar score 6-7) birth asphyxia at five minutes. In all, 14.28% babies were in HIE stage I, 25.73% babies were in HIE stage II, and 11.42% babies were in HIE stage III. The rest of the newborns, 48.57%, were normal. The prevalence of liver function impairment was seen in 42.85% of asphyxiated neonates. On day 1, ALT, AST, ALP, LDH, PT, and INR were significantly higher, and total protein and serum albumin were significantly lower in group A than in group B. However, ALT and AST correlated well with increasing severity of HIE score. On day 3, there was a rising trend observed in the concentration of mean LDH as HIE staging of neonates progressed from stage 0 to stage III, and among various HIE stages, the difference in LDH was statistically significant.

We concluded that AST, ALT at 24 hours, and LDH at 72 hours of animation can be a utilitarian diagnostic tool to differentiate asphyxiated neonates from non-asphyxiated neonates and to discover the severity of perinatal asphyxia because of easy accessibility and feasibility of tests. The outcomes of this survey would be useful for physicians who receive neonates for whom birth details are not easily documented as most of the time the referred newborn infants lack asphyxia history either because the attendants do not know clearly the whole birth history or it was an unattended delivery, or the referring health-care professional has not been observant because of legal threats. The neurological assessment also becomes difficult and inconclusive as ventilator treatment, sedative drugs, and anticonvulsant therapy would produce an evaluation of severity of hypoxic ischemic brain disease and neurological insult difficult.