The performance of growth charts in well term newborns in screening for hypoglycemia.

Objective: To compare the performance of Fenton Growth Chart (FGC) with WHO Growth Chart (WGC) to identify term infants at risk for hypoglycemia.

Study Design: A retrospective study of infants screened for hypoglycemia due to SGA or LGA status determined by FGC and/or WGC.

Results: Nine hundred and seventy infants were included. There was 47.7% agreement between growth charts. A total of 283 (29.2%) newborns developed hypoglycemia. Of those with hypoglycemia, 53.7% were identified by both charts. WGC was more sensitive for all categories of hypoglycemia examined; hypoglycemia (81.3% [CI 76.2-86.7] vs 72.4% [CI 66.8-77.6]), severe hypoglycemia (80.8% [CI 67.5-90.4] vs 71.2% [CI 56.9-82.9]), and hypoglycemia requiring NICU transfer (88.5% [CI 69.9-97.6] vs 65.4% [CI 44.2-82.8). The FGC was more specific for all hypoglycemia categories.

Conclusions: There was poor agreement between WGC and FGC for hypoglycemia in term infants. The WGC was more sensitive in detecting hypoglycemia and was non-inferior to the FGC.