Clinical pathology selected abstracts
April 2024—Neonatal anemia is a common comorbidity of premature infants and may result from certain obstetric conditions or diseases, or, in the case of iatrogenic anemia, from multiple phlebotomies in the first days of life. Once infants enter the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), they undergo a series of laboratory tests at baseline and then as needed for treatment or monitoring. These tests commonly include blood cultures, CBCs, coagulation profiles, metabolic screens, blood gases, blood glucose, and chemistry profiles. Phlebotomy-associated blood loss is more clinically relevant in lower birth-weight neonates since they have lower total circulating blood volumes. When blood is drawn from an indwelling umbilical catheter, even more blood is removed due to the need to flush residual intravenous fluid from the line.