Abstract:Objective To investigate the relationship between serum hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels, and related clinical features with the risk of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).Methods Eighty-five cases of HIE children treated at the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University from January 2020 to January 2023 were selected as the HIE group, and 120 healthy newborns born in the same period were selected as the control group. Clinical data of the two groups were analyzed, and serum HIF-1α, NSE, and GFAP levels were measured in the newborns within 3 days after birth. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to analyze the predictive value of serum HIF-1α, NSE, and GFAP levels in predicting the occurrence of neonatal HIE, and multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of neonatal HIE.Results Compared with the control group, the proportion of infants with intrauterine distress, umbilical cord abnormalities, amniotic fluid pollution, and 1-minute Apgar score ≤ 7 in the HIE group was higher (P < 0.05), and serum HIF-1α, NSE, and GFAP levels were higher (P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in maternal age, maternal education level, gestational age, newborn gender, birth weight, parity, cesarean section, and premature rupture of membranes between the two groups (P > 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the sensitivity of HIF-1α, NSE, GFAP, and their combination in predicting the occurrence of neonatal HIE was 82.7% (95% CI: 0.795, 0.862), 78.7% (95% CI: 0.705, 0.849), 84.0% (95% CI: 0.803, 0.891), and 85.3% (95% CI: 0.788, 0.922), respectively, and the specificity was 85.3% (95% CI: 0.816, 0.907), 74.7% (95% CI: 0.715, 0.796), 72.0% (95% CI: 0.692, 0.771), and 90.5% (95% CI: 0.825, 0.956), respectively. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.907 (95% CI: 0.884, 0.930), 0.850 (95% CI: 0.816, 0.884), 0.893 (95% CI: 0.827, 0.959), and 0.936 (95% CI: 0.905, 0.967), respectively. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that intrauterine distress [O^R = 3.592 (95% CI: 2.017, 6.397)], umbilical cord abnormalities [O^R = 4.905 (95% CI: 2.862, 8.406)], amniotic fluid pollution [O^R = 7.262 (95% CI: 3.603, 14.637)], 1-minute Apgar score ≤ 7 [O^R = 3.139 (95% CI: 1.954, 5.043)], HIF-1α ≥ 0.463 ng/mL [O^R = 2.916 (95% CI: 1.422, 5.980)], NSE ≥ 12.395 μg/L [O^R = 3.714 (95% CI: 1.955, 7.056)], and GFAP ≥ 3.962 ng/mL [O^R = 3.556 (95% CI: 2.039, 6.202)] were risk factors for neonatal HIE (P < 0.05).Conclusion Intrauterine distress, umbilical cord abnormalities, amniotic fluid pollution, low 1-minute Apgar score after birth, and high serum HIF-1α, NSE, and GFAP levels are risk factors for neonatal HIE. Clinical detection of serum HIF-1α, NSE, and GFAP levels can assist in the screening of HIE. The combination of these three indicators for detection can further improve the diagnostic value.