Rickets in Babies Under Two Years of Age Who were Delivered as Preterm in Ramadi City

To identify the prevalence of rickets in preterm and term babies, and studying the risk factor associated with this disease in preterm babies as age, sex, residence, type of feeding, and changes in some biochemical tests. Total 200 cases with different ages from one month to two years were included, 100 cases of them were preterm babies and 100 were term babies. Patients who diagnosed as rickets radiologically among preterm babies were studied by history (sex, age, type of feeding, residence and clinical feature) and investigated serologically (serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and vitamin D). About 35% of preterm babies were diagnosed as rickets of prematurity and 9% were rickets in term babies. among risk factors, breast milk feeding was significant risk factors while residence and gender variation were found to be not significant risk factors. most common age reported with rickets was between 2 and 12 months. alkaline phosphatase elevated in 91% of cases diagnosed as rickets. The rickets of preterm babies is an important disease to be studied in Iraq. Breast feeding is an important risk factor of the disease.alkaline phosphatase activity and radiological feature are important for screening.