Journal of Marine Medical Society (Jan 2023)

Prevalence of subclinical Vitamin K deficiency in early infancy in exclusively breast-fed term infants

  • Gitanjali Jain,
  • K M Adhikari,
  • Gautam Kumar Vasnik,
  • Daljit Singh,
  • Venkatesan Somasundaram,
  • Rakesh Gupta,
  • Puja Dudeja,
  • Subhash Chandra Shaw

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/jmms.jmms_75_22
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 3
pp. 55 – 57

Abstract

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Background: Late Vitamin K deficiency bleeding, is a disease of exclusively breast-fed infants attributable to poor content of Vitamin K in breast milk. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of subclinical Vitamin K deficiency, at 3 months of age in exclusively breast-fed term infants who were administered routine Vitamin K 1 mg intramuscular at birth. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted between June 2018 and June 2020 in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Western India. Consecutive inborn infants, having received Injection Vitamin K at birth and on exclusive breast feeds attending immunization at 3 months of age were included. Half milliliter of venous blood was withdrawn for the estimation of Proteins Induced by Vitamin K Absence or Antagonist-II (PIVKA-II). Subclinical Vitamin K deficiency was defined as PIVKA-II level of more than 2 ng/mL. Results: The mean age of infants was 3.2 ± 0.2 months and the PIVKA II levels ranged from 0.19 to 10.07 ng/ml. Subclinical Vitamin K deficiency was present in 62 (32.63%) out of 190 infants. Conclusion: Significantly raised PIVKA II levels (>2 ng/mL) were detectable in 32.6% of infants after 3 months of age who had received 1 mg of Vitamin K at birth.

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