Background: Prematurity is the most common cause of neonatal death, resulting in approximately 80% of the deaths of infants without congenital abnormalities.Objectives: This study aimed to determine the survival of low BIRTH WEIGHT infants and to investigate the effect of BIRTH WEIGHT, gestational age, and Apgar score on mortality rate.Patients and Methods: We retrospectively studied the mortality and survival of 798 newborns with BIRTH WEIGHT of<2500 g during a 4-year period in the neonatal intensive care unit of a referral hospital in Qom, Iran.Results: The survival-to-discharge rate was 50% for infants weighing<1000 g and 84.2% for those weighing 1000 – 1499 g. Survival rates at 26, 27, and 28 weeks’ gestation were 54.1%, 63.6%, and 70.2%, respectively. An Apgar score of more than 5 at the first minute and more than 7 at the fifth minute were associated with better survival after hospital discharge.Conclusions: Our study showed that even with modern perinatal technology and care, early deaths of extremely low BIRTH WEIGHT infants are common in our hospitals.

Background: Almost 7.7 percent of all newborns weigh less than 2500 g in different countries. One of the most important reasons that lead to low BIRTH WEIGHT, is maternal anemia during pregnancy. On the other hand, if maternal hemoglobin is too high, the prenatal outcome is not good. In this research we studied the relationship between maternal hematocrit (Hct) and BIRTH WEIGHT, as well as the risk of low BIRTH WEIGHT (LBW).Methods: This is a cohort study on all pregnant women who used to come to Arash hospital to receive prenatal care (April 2003 – March 2004) and they also delivered there.Findings: If pregnant women have abnormal (higher or lower than normal) Hct level in the first or third trimester, the mean BIRTH WEIGHT will be lower and the risk of LBW higher. Maternal Hct level, maternal height, maternal WEIGHT and gestational age at delivery have relation to the risk of LBW.Conclusions: It seems that an unfavorable level of maternal Hct is associated with a decrease in newborn's WEIGHT and LBW. So, special attention to the level of maternal Hct during pregnancy and control of it can decrease LBW incidence.

Objective: Studies demonstrated that 5-10% of preschool children have visual impairment. By age seven, up to 13% of children will have some defect in visual acuity. Both prematurity and low BIRTH WEIGHT have been associated with an increased incidence of ophthalmic disorders. In this study we determined prevalence of visual impairment in low BIRTH WEIGHT and normal BIRTH WEIGHT school age children in Mashhad.Methods: This is a cross sectional study. The target population consisted of all children referred I to educational organizations for screening before entering school in Mashhad, Iran. 2400 children enrolled in the study and were evaluated for amblyopic, refractive errors, color vision disturbance and optic nerve problems. Data were analyzed by SPSS.Findings: Prevalence of ophthalmic problems in all children was 5.43% and in low BIRTH WEIGHT and normal BIRTH WEIGHT 8.29% and 5.74% respectively. Incidence of ophthalmic problems was significantly (P=0.029) higher in low BIRTH WEIGHT children than in normal BIRTH WEIGHT children. The most common ophthalmic disease in both low BIRTH WEIGHT and normal BIRTH WEIGHT children was refractive errors 81.5% vs. 68.8 % (P<0.05). Prevalence of myopia, amblyopia and color vision disturbance was also higher in low BIRTH WEIGHT than in normal BIRTH WEIGHT children.Conclusion: Low BIRTH WEIGHT children are at greater risk of the visual impairment that may occur at an early age and result in long term morbidity. Visual outcome of low BIRTH WEIGHT neonates should be evaluated routinely.

Background: Low-BIRTH-WEIGHT (LBW) is universally used as an indicator of health status and is an important subject of national concern and a focus of health policy. LBW has been shown to be associated with a higher risk for childhood mortality and morbidity. Objective: To determine the important risk factors which could affect the delivery of LBW neonates. Methods: This case-control study was undertaken to determine some risk factors for LBW in two university hospitals in Tehran during a 12-month period between 2002 and 2003. One hundred and sixty neonates constituted the LBW group and 300 neonates constituted the control group. Maternal risk factors including body mass index (BMI), educational level, interval between pregnancies, history of previous delivery of LBW neonates, abortion, infertility, unwanted pregnancy, and diseases were analyzed between the two groups. Mean of maternal age was similar between the two groups. Results: Of 160 LBW neonates, 58% were females and 42% males. It was found that mother’s BMI, unwanted pregnancy, educational level of mother, short and long intervals between pregnan­cies, previous history of delivering LBW neonates, and maternal diseases are associated with an increased risk of LBW. Conclusion: The majority of factors which lead to the delivery of LBW neonates are preventable.

Background and Objectives: The association between discordant growth and the complication of twin prgnancy has been recognized for more than 30years. Recent publications have presented evidence that 30% or even 40% discordancere presents the threshold for significante. Our purpose was to define twin growth discordance on the basis of perinatal outcome and other factors like mathernal age pariety and systemic disease. Materials and Methods: Twins delivered at age more than 32 week"s gestation between 1998-2000 at Deziani hospital Gorgan was identified. BIRTH WEIGHT, pre-term BIRTH, mathernal age pariety and systemic disease and sex of twins recorded. Discordance was calculated as: 100 x Larger BW-Samller BW/Larger BW Results: The mean discordance for 435 twins was 8.18±6.79. 96.4% ofpre-term BIRTH associated with discordance ≥20%. 10.6%of mathers had a systemic disease and mean discordance in twins term and pre-term of normal mothers was 5.8±4.5, 7.9±6.3 and in systemic disease was 9±9.2, 11.1±8.8(P:S;0.008).There was no diffrences in pariety age and sex. Conclusion: Twin BIRTH WEIGHT discordance had now clearly been demonstratd to be a risk factor for pre-term BIRTH. The effect was found particularly with discordances ≥20% after 32 week"s gestation.

Low BIRTH WEIGHT (LBW, BIRTH WEIGHT <2500g) is a significant health problem of children. Many studies have made it apparent that there is a direct relationship between low BIRTH WEIGHT and infant motality.One of the most important measurements to prevent children morbidity is growth monitoring and the present study was set up to compare the growth Indexes of 2 year old children born with low WEIGHT with those WEIGHTing 2500 g and more at BIRTH (mormal BIRTH WEIGHT, NBW).This research is a retrospective cohort study and the samples include 218 two year old infants (109 LBW infants, 109 NBW infants).Selection criteria for the LBW and NBW infants were factors such as having BIRTH WEIGHT <2500 gr in LBW group and 2500 -4000 in NBW group, absence of congenital anomalies, born from singleton pregnancies etc. Needed data were collected in questionnaires by researcher and for this purpose the measurements of children WEIGHT, height and head circumference at ages in 2 years after BIRTH that had been recorded in their health files were used. Statistical analysis was carried out with help oft-test and X test. Our findings revealed that the group of LBW children had a statistically significant lower body WEIGHT, shorter height, smaller head circumferences and lower WEIGHT - for- age, height -for –age and WEIGHT- for - height indexes in two year children than the group of NBW children. Moreover, the WEIGHT percentile of LBW children at 2 years of age was lower than one in the NBW group. The data suggest that low BIRTH WEIGHT adversely affects on child's growth in early life. Therefore, LBW infants require special considerations about growth follow up and monitoring after BIRTH.

Background: The WEIGHT of fetus at BIRTH is widely acceptable parameter that can demonstrate the health of mother. Low BIRTH WEIGHT (LBW) (BIRTH WEIGHT less than 2500g) is significantly related to the neonatal survival and postnatal morbidity. Adolescence pregnancy is an important risk factor of LBW. The main objective of this study was therefore to determine the prevalence of LBW and relationship between maternal age and the BIRTH WEIGHT.Materials and Methods: In a case - control cross-sectional study, during the entire year of 2008, all BIRTHs taking place in all maternity hospitals of Yazd central city of Iran evaluated and LBW neonates detected and compared from view of maternal age to control cases (BIRTH WEIGHT>2500g). For each LBW neonate (case group), two control cases were included. Neonate BIRTH WEIGHT of 1500 - 2499g, less than 1500 g and less than 1000 g were classified as moderately LBW (MLBW), very LBW (VLBW) and extremely LBW (ELBW), respectively.Results: During one year, a total of 5897 deliveries took palace. The prevalence of LBW infants was 8.8% (519 neonates); of them, 8 (1.5%), 39 (7.5%) and 472 (91%) were ELBW, VLBW and MLBW. The incidence of LBW infants in mothers with age<20, 20-35 and 35-40 years old were: 27.5%, 6.6% and 6.5% respectively that show the teenage pregnancy increased risk of having LBW neonates (p=0.02).Conclusion: The incidence of LBW infants in Yazd, Iran, was 8.8% and teenage pregnancy (maternal age<20 years old) was significantly associated with Low BIRTH WEIGHT neonates.