Abstract
Background and objectives: Neonatal Jaundice is one of the important disorders of neonatal period. There are different etiologic factors and glucose-6- phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is one of the causative agents. G6PD deficiency is the most important disorder in hexose monophosphate pathway, it is x-linked and more than 200 milion have this disorder. Since the incidence of this disease was not known in East Azerbaijan province, so this cross sectional study was done.
Methods and Material: The enzyme level was measured in icteric neonates referring to pediatric medical center from January 2004 for one year. Informations such as age, gender, initiation time of icter, bilirubin, hemoglobin, reticulocyte count, were obtained from the chart of patients.
Results: In 569 icteric neonates the G6PD was measured, 13 neonates (2.28%) had enzyme deficiency. All of them weighed over 2.5 kg except one, 10 of them were male and 3 female. Bilirubin level was 22.41 5.88 mg/100.
Conclusion: G6PD deficiency is reported to be 40% in Nigeria, while its incidence in Iran is 10-14.5% and in our study it was 2.28%. It is necessary to perform the study in larger population in East Azerbaijan.