Material and Methods

We used the umbilical cord blood of 180 babies born in Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic in 2015-2016. This prospective study was approved by the Dicle University medical school ethics committee.
Umbilical cord blood samples were collected from neonates who born in Dicle University Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic. The blood samples were centrifuged for 10 minutes at 4000 rpm and were kept at -20 °C. Serum NGAL was studied on these 180 blood samples obtained. Serum NGAL levels were measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique via a commercial kit (SunRed® Biotechnology Company).
The gestational ages of the babies were determined according to the last menstrual period or the New Ballard Score. Those with a gestational age below 37 weeks were classified as preterm, those with a gestational age between 37-42 weeks were classified as term, and those with a gestational age over 42 weeks were classified as postterm. There were no babies in our study older than 42 weeks. The babies were divided as 28 weeks below, 28-31 weeks, 32-37 weeks, and 37 weeks and over according to their gestational ages. They were also divided as 750 grams and below, 750-1200 grams, 1200-1800 grams, 1800-2500 grams, and 2500 grams and over according to their birth weights.
Exclusion criteria:
1- Having chromosomal disorders (such as trisomy 13, 18, 21) 2- Having major congenital malformations 3- Stillbirth 4- Preterm babies born at <22 gestational week.
Statistical Analysis
In the statistical evaluation of our research data, IBM SPSS 21.0 statistical package program for Windows was used. Numeric variables were presented with mean ± standard deviation (SD); categorical variables were presented with numbers and percentages (%). The compliance of the data with normal distribution was examined. In the comparison of groups with normal distribution and two measurements, dependent and independent t-tests were used. In the comparison of groups with non-normal distribution and two measurements, Mann Whitney U and Wilcoxon tests were used. In the comparison of means in groups with normal distribution and multiple measurements, the one-way analysis of variance was used. In the comparison of groups with non-normal distribution and multiple measurements, Kruskal Wallis H and Friedman tests were used. The measured data were expressed as mean and standard deviation. Hypotheses were two-sided; p≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant, p≤0.01 highly significant, and p≤0.001extremely significant.