To determine the incidence of latent iron deficiency in neonates more than 34 weeks with and without risk factors for poor in utero iron status

Iron is an essential micronutrient that plays a significant role in critical cellular functions in all organ systems in all species. Iron plays a fundamental role in neural development. It takes part in the myelination and synaptogenesis processes. The fetus obtains iron from the mother through the placenta and full-term infants are usually born with ample amounts of body iron. However, there are certain conditions which can negatively affect the fetal iron status. These include maternal iron deficiency, prematurity, maternal diabetes mellitus, pre-eclampsia, maternal smoking, and intrauterine growth restriction during pregnancy. These conditions have been associated with decreased iron transfer to the fetus and often lead to in utero iron deficiency. The negative iron balance results in hierarchical loss of tissue iron where iron depletion occurs in the brain before it occurs in the red blood cells. The negative iron status that occurs when brain iron may be depleted but red blood cells are not affected is termed as latent iron deficiency. Latent Iron Deficiency can be defined as serum ferritin level between 11 to 75 ng/ml with normal hemoglobin.Such infants could exhaust their iron stores much earlier and become iron deficient before 6 months of age . Identification of such infants becomes important as in utero LID can result in delayed neuronal maturation and abnormal neurological outcomes during childhood.

As very little is known about the incidence of in utero LID and the risk factors associated with it,we are aiming to determine the incidence of LID in pregnancy with and without risk factors for poor in utero iron status through our study.