Prevalence of Hypocalcaemia in Term Neonates and the Clinical Characteristics of the Affected Neonates Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

The burden of neonatal hypocalcaemia remains unknown in Zambia. Convulsions with concurrent hypocalcaemia are a common complication seen in very ill neonates at The University Teaching Hospital (UTH) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), now known as Women and Newborn Hospital. The unit admits close to 4000 neonates per year with various neonatal conditions. Meanwhile, studies around the globe have shown prevalence levels of neonatal hypocalcaemia ranging from 17% to 39%. This study endeavoured to determine the prevalence of hypocalcaemia in term neonates, the clinical characteristics of the affected neonates and to establish the proportion of neonates with seizures who also had hypocalcaemia. This was a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 174 neonates enrolled into the study by simple random sampling methods out of 240 screened neonates. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 2. The relationship between study variables and the outcome variable of interest (hypocalcaemia) was examined using a logistic regression model. The prevalence of neonatal hypocalcaemia was found to be 26.4% (46/174) and 50% (23/46) of hypocalcemic neonates presented with abnormal neurological features such as convulsions, hypertonia and hypotonia. Of the neonates who presented with convulsions in this study, 26.8% (19/71) were also found to have hypocalcaemia. However, there was no statistically significant association between convulsions and hypocalcaemia. The prevalence of hypocalcemia in term neonates admitted to NICU at UTH is high with half of the hypocalcemic neonates manifesting neurological signs.