Association of antenatal steroids with surfactant administration in moderate preterm infants born to women with diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension

Maternal and neonatal outcomes following antenatal corticosteroids in pregnancies complicated by diabetes: a scoping review

Objective

To examine the current literature surrounding the administration of antenatal corticosteroids in pregnancies complicated by diabetes and summarize the reported neonatal and maternal outcomes in exposed and unexposed groups.

Data sources

A systematic search was performed in November 2023 using Ovid Medline and Embase databases to identify relevant studies.

Study Eligibility Criteria

Articles that reported on the maternal or neonatal outcomes in pregnancies complicated by pre-gestational or gestational diabetes after exposure to antenatal corticosteroids were included in this review. Articles were excluded if they did not separately report on the outcomes experienced by women with diabetes.

Methods

Maternal and neonatal outcomes of interest included neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal hypoglycemia, and maternal hyperglycemia. Key words in this search included combinations of the terms related to pre-gestational and gestational diabetes, antenatal corticosteroids, respiratory distress syndrome, hypoglycemia, and hyperglycemia. Title and abstract screening was conducted in duplicate.

Results

There were 19 studies that met the inclusion criteria. There were 13 studies that presented results pertaining to neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, 14 studies discussed neonatal hypoglycemia and 5 studies discussed maternal hyperglycemia. Only 2 included studies were randomized controlled trials with the remaining 17 studies being observational. There was heterogeneity in clinical settings, study populations, type of corticosteroid administered and timing of administration across the included studies. This review found that there is no clear evidence of beneficial effect of corticosteroid administration on neonatal respiratory outcomes in pregnancies complicated by diabetes. Additionally, there was discrepancy between studies reporting on neonatal hypoglycemia with 6 studies reporting an increased incidence in this outcome after antenatal corticosteroid exposure whilst 4 studies found no difference between exposed and unexposed groups. This review identified a specific gap in the reporting of maternal hyperglycemia following antenatal corticosteroids. The limited number of studies that did report this outcome unanimously reported an increased incidence of maternal hyperglycemia after corticosteroid exposure. The majority of studies had small sample sizes of pregnancies both complicated by diabetes and exposed to corticosteroids and therefore lacked sufficient power to make robust conclusions about the influence of antenatal corticosteroids in this group.

Conclusion

This review concludes that there are insufficient data regarding the risks and benefits of antenatal corticosteroid administration in pregnancies complicated by diabetes.

A validated NICU database: recounting 50 years of clinical growth, quality improvement and research

The importance of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) database lies in its critical role in improving the quality of care for very preterm neonates and other high-risk newborns. These databases contain extensive information regarding maternal exposures, pregnancy complications, and neonatal care. They support quality improvement (QI) initiatives, facilitate clinical research, and track health outcomes in order to identify best practices and improve clinical guidelines. The Parkland Memorial Hospital NICU database was originally part of the Maternal and Neonatal Data Acquisition, Transmission and Evaluation project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to assess perinatal-neonatal care in Dallas County Texas, 1977-1982. Clinical data points were defined, transcribed and validated in 1977; revalidation has occurred multiple times. Data are prospectively extracted from health records of high-risk neonates among >11,000 births annually. The database contains clinical information on >50,000 neonates, including all initially admitted to the NICU regardless of gestational age or birthweight and since 10/03/2011, all neonates admitted for observation and transferred to the term newborn nursery. The database has provided the basis for QI studies and research designed to assess and improve neonatal care. We discuss the history, evolution, administration, impact on neonatal outcomes, and future directions of our database. IMPACT: A single neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) database was designed for prospective data collection, validated and maintained for 46yrs. This database has supported quality improvement assessment, original clinical research, education and administrative requirements and impacted clinical neonatal care.

Antenatal steroids and neonatal outcomes in late preterm births with pregestational diabetes

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate if antenatal steroid use was associated with a lower rate of respiratory complications in neonates born late preterm to patients with pregestational diabetes mellitus (PGDM).

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study of live, singleton, non-anomalous, late preterm births complicated by PGDM using data from the Centers for Disease Control and National Vital Statistics System from 2017 to 2021. The primary (assisted ventilation use >6 h) and secondary neonatal outcomes (immediate assisted ventilation, Apgar score, neonatal intensive care unit [NICU] admission, and surfactant use) were compared between births that received steroids and those that did not. Multivariable analyses were performed to adjust for differences in demographic and clinical characteristics.

RESULTS

There were 24 323 late preterm births with PGDM, of which 4613 received antenatal steroids and 19 710 did not receive steroids. After adjusting for the differences among the two groups, the need for assisted neonatal ventilation for more than 6 h (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.53-1.86), immediate assisted neonatal ventilation (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.55-1.80), NICU admission (aOR 1.95, 95% CI 1.81-2.10), and surfactant use (aOR 1.68, 95% CI 1.40-2.02) were higher in the births that received steroids compared with those that did not. These findings did not differ when examining outcomes at each gestational week of delivery between 34 weeks 0 days and 36 weeks 6 days.

CONCLUSIONS

Antenatal steroid use in late preterm births complicated with PGDM was associated with worse immediate respiratory neonatal outcomes. Our findings support current recommendations against the use of steroids in the late preterm period in pregnancies with PGDM.