Table 1.
Characteristics of study subjects (preterm infants < 33 weeks gestational age).
| N | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | ||
| African American | 22 | 57.9 |
| Asian | 3 | 7.9 |
| White | 12 | 31.6 |
| Others | 1 | 2.6 |
| Gender | ||
| Female | 17 | 44.7 |
| Male | 21 | 55.3 |
| Delivery route | ||
| Cesarean | 26 | 68.4 |
| Vaginal | 12 | 31.6 |
| Gestational age/Postmenstrual age∗ (weeks) | 29.9 ± 2.2/31.4 ± 2.3 | |
| Birth weight | 1,386 ± 404 | |
| <1500 g | 21 | 55.3 |
| ≥1500 g | 17 | 44.7 |
| Intestinal permeability ∗∗ | 0.104 ± 0.123 | |
| High | 31 | 52.5 |
| Low | 28 | 47.5 |
| Antibiotic use | ||
| None | 7 | 18.4 |
| 1–3 days | 12 | 31.6 |
| >4 days | 19 | 50.0 |
| Day start breastmilk feeding | ||
| Day 1 | 17 | 44.7 |
| Day 2 or 3 | 15 | 39.5 |
| >Day 4 | 6 | 15.8 |
| Day reached full breastmilk feeding | ||
| <Day 7 | 5 | 13.2 |
| Day 8–14 | 15 | 39.5 |
| >Day 15 | 18 | 47.4 |
| Microbiota type ∗∗∗ (most abundant species) | ||
| I (Klebsiella pneumonia) | 27 | 42.2 |
| II (Staphylococcus epidermidis) | 26 | 40.6 |
| III (Escherichia coli) | 11 | 17.2 |
∗Postmenstrual age was calculated as gestational age at birth plus week of life (Grier et at., 2017). ∗∗The low and high intestinal permeability category was defined by a La/Rh > 0.05 or ≤0.05, respectively (Saleem et al., 2017). ∗∗∗Microbiota type was defined based on clustering of taxonomic profiles using 16S rRNA gene amplicon in this study.