Thromboelastographic Profile in Healthy Newborns and Infants of Diabetic Mothers Using TEG6s

Plain-language summary

Thromboelastography (TEG) is a laboratory technique used to examine the process of clot formation and degradation by measuring and reporting the kinetic changes, the rate of clot formation, clot strength, and clot stability. TEG provides numeric values and a graphical representation of the primary and secondary hemostatic systems and fibrinolysis more quickly and with a smaller blood sample than routine coagulation studies. TEG6s, the newest TEG platform, simplifies and standardizes TEG technique and is currently available at only four US children's hospitals. Normative values of TEG6s results have not been established in healthy neonates. There are a number of well-established perinatal risk factors for thrombosis in the newborn; however, maternal diabetes has been the most frequently identified risk factor in the newborn since 1965. Despite the well-established hypercoagulable state observed in infants of diabetic mothers (IDMs), there have been no studies evaluating TEG in IDMs. To establish normative data and investigate the hypercoagulable state of IDMs, this observational prospective cohort study will evaluate TEG6s in these two populations: a control group that will include neonates ≥37 weeks gestational age born to mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies and a comparison group that will include neonates ≥37 weeks born to mothers with gestational diabetes or a history of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes prior to pregnancy, either requiring insulin or diet controlled. We hypothesize that cord blood TEG6s results will differ between healthy newborns and IDMs reflecting a hypercoagulable state in IDMs with an increased coagulation index (CI) in the IDM group. A sample size calculation was performed for a two-sample t-test using the POWER procedure in SAS version 9.4. Based on a two-tailed alpha of 0.05 and a standard deviation of 0.9, the total N was determined to be 40 (i.e., 20 in each group). This yields a power of 0.84 to detect a difference of 1.25 units in the mean CI between IDMs and healthy controls. To avoid blood loss and skin breaking procedures in the subjects, umbilical cord blood obtained from the umbilical cord will be used for analysis. To assure appropriate dilution, a hematocrit will be measured at the time of blood collection using a blood gas machine for prompt results. Sample blood will immediately be taken by the investigators from the delivery hospital to the children's hospital, where the following clotting studies will be performed: PT, aPTT, fibrinogen, platelet count, platelet mapping, and TEG6s. Statistical analyses will be performed on the results of these studies and will provide normative data in healthy newborns and infants of diabetic mothers. Having data on the coagulation profile of neonates will help guide management techniques and help explain the propensity to clot among IDMs and guide further research into prevention and treatment of this complication.

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