Risk Factors of Germinal Matrix Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Premature Infants

Objective: to determine whether some clinical parameters can be used to predict the hemorrhage and whether the relationship between these clinical variables and the grades of hemorrhage is linear. methods: a total of 230 premature infants, born at a gestational age less than 34 weeks were retrospectively reviewed. germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage (gm-ivh), the grade of the hemorrhage, and clinical data were assessed with a checklist. variables were analyzed by using mann whitney u and fisher's exact tests and then multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the independent risk factors. findings: resuscitation, gestational age, hypotension, multiple birth, and birth weight were found to be independent risk factors. we determined non-linear relationship between the grades of hemorrhage and the clinical parameters. but when we classified hemorrhages as grade 1, grade 2-3 and grade 4, the relationships were found linear. conclusion: premature infants who had resuscitation, low gestational age, hypotension, multiple birth, and low birth weight are more likely to have gm-ivh. the relationship between the clinical variables and the grades of gm-ivh does not seem to be linear.