Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 11, 2025
A Neonatal BALB/c Mouse Model of Necrotizing Enterocolitis
Published on: November 30, 2021
Hematological predictors of mortality in neonates with fulminant necrotizing enterocolitis
Parvesh Mohan Garg1, Anna O'Connor2, Md Abu Yusuf Ansari3
1Department of Pediatrics/Neonatology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA. gargparvesh@hotmail.com.
Objective:
Determine whether hematological and transfusion patterns following, the onset of NEC can identify infants likely to develop fulminant, fatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
Design:
Determine hematological predictors of fulminant NEC.
Results:
Of 336 neonates with NEC, 35 (10%) who developed fulminant NEC were born with higher birth weights and more frequently developed radiologically evident pneumoperitoneumand/or portal venous gas. Following the diagnosis of NEC, these infants were more likely to rapidly develop thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, neutropenia, and lower total white blood cell counts compared to medical/surgical non-fulminant type. They were also more likely to have received a red blood cell (RBC) transfusion (76.7% vs. 53.1%, p = 0.001) within 48 h after disease onset and platelet transfusion (24.2% vs. 11.7%; p = 0.03) before the onset of NEC.
Conclusion:
Neonates with fulminant NEC frequently developed thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, neutropenia, and leukopenia, received RBC transfusions after or platelet transfusions before the onset of NEC developed the fulminant disease.
