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Late preterm antenatal steroid use and infant outcomes in a single center

Abstract

Objective

To characterize late preterm antenatal steroids (AS) use and associated neonatal outcomes in a single academic center.

Study design

Retrospective study of 503 singleton, mother-infant dyads delivered between 34 0/7 and 36 6/7 weeks gestation between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020.

Results

Forty-three percent did not receive AS (No AS) prior to delivery. Among AS treated, 50% were sub-optimal dosing. No AS had higher preterm premature rupture of membranes and maternal diabetes. AS group had lower mean gestational age, birthweight, longer time from admission to delivery and longer NICU stay. There was no difference in neonatal hypoglycemia.

Conclusions

Sub-optimal AS dosing in late preterms remains high in our center. AS did not improve neonatal outcomes. Studies are needed to evaluate the impact of AS in diabetics delivering late preterm, to optimize the timing of AS dosing, and evaluate the longer term impact on late preterm infants.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

Funding

This work was supported by 2 KL2 TR002370-06(MDG); NHLBI R01 HL105447 with co-funding from the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), NIH UH3OD023288 from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO), NIH R33HL147906 (CMT). Additional support from the Oregon Clinical Translational Research Institute funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR002369).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

MG and CM conceived and designed the study, contributed to data analysis and interpretation; MG wrote the manuscript with support from MW, TK, and CM. MW and TK collected data and performed the data analysis. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mitzi Go.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Oregon Health & Science University Institutional Review Board (IRB Study#22726) and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Go, M., Wahl, M., Kruss, T. et al. Late preterm antenatal steroid use and infant outcomes in a single center. J Perinatol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-024-01934-2

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