Article in Japanese

Factors affecting serum immunoglobulin G levels in preterm infants; a retrospective study on serum IgG levels at birth and hospital discharge

Shin HASHIMOTO¹⁾, Mayumi ONO¹⁾, Lisa IGARASHI¹⁾, Hiroyuki TSUTSUMI¹⁾

Serum IgG levels are low in preterm infants, because they are lower when transferred from mother to fetus until 33 weeks of gestation. Indeed, little is known about the factors affecting serum IgG levels at birth or the changes in those levels afterwards.
In order to clarify these aspects, the authors conducted a retrospective study on serum IgG levels in 50 and 33 infants of less than 30 weeks of gestational age from birth and at hospital discharge, respectively. Serum IgG levels at birth were correlated positively with gestational age (r=0.699, p<0.001), but were not associated with any maternal or fetal factors. At hospital discharge, 31 infants (94%) had serum IgG levels lower than birth levels and 26 infants (79%) had below 200 mg/dl. Serum IgG levels were not related to the clinical course and treatment of infants. This study confirmed that maternal and fetal factors, clinical course and treatment of infant do not affect serum IgG levels. Low serum IgG levels in preterm infants persisted at birth until hospital discharge.

---

1) Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Sapporo Medical University

Key words
Received	May 9, 2016
Accepted	July 21, 2016

28 (3)：185─190,2016