Table 1: Characteristics of 107 infants <33 weeks of GA hospitalized in NICU.

Characteristics at birth % Male gender 54.2 BW GA SGA 25.4 Apgar score <3 at 1 minute of life 11.2 Prenatal characteristics Antenatal steroids 77.6 Caesarean section 79.4 Postnatal characteristics Central venous line 62.6 Acute anaemia at birth 13.2 Body weight loss >15% of BW 11.2 RDS-requiring surfactant 66.4 Early onset sepsis 6.5 Hypotension-requiring treatment 13.1 Acute renal failure* 11.2 HsPDA 36.4 Oxygen dependency beyond 36 wks PCA 12.3 Necrotizing enterocolitis 2.8 Severe abnormal cerebral ultrasound† 1.8 Death after the first week of life 0 Cerebral palsy at 18 months of PCA 2.1

(NICU) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; (BW) birth weight; (GA) gestational age; (SGA) small for gestational age; (RDS) respiratory distress syndrome; (HsPDA) hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus; (PCA) postconceptional age. g (mean ± SD), #weeks (mean ± SD), *according to [12], intraventricular haemorrhage grade 3 or 4 and/or periventricular leukomalacia.