[The micro-erythrosedimentation rate in low-birth-weight newborn infants]

Several authors described the values of micro-ESR in identifying neonates with infection, but all results were referred to full-term, or full-term and LBW, or full-term and pre-term infants. Our study focused on LBW infants only. 31 of them (15 AGA preterm and 16 SGA term) were tested according to Adler's method and the mean values as well as the 95%ile of their micro-ESR were compared to Adler's group. All of them had a lower micro-ESR but in the SGA term infants it resulted to be very significant. This was in accordance with Ht and MCV increase for chronic fetal hypoxemia and acute placental-fetal transfusion during episodes of fetal hypoxia. We conclude that a micro-ESR lower than usual detects a possibly SGA septic newborn.