Background: The ductus, an essential component of foetal circulation, normally closes within the first days of life. We aimed in this study to determine the frequency of spontaneous closure of PDA among preterm infants.

Patient and methods: We performed this prospective study on 57 preterm neonates with patent ductus arteriosus admitted at NICU the Pediatrics Department, Zagazig University Hospital. Routine laboratory investigations were done to all neonates. All PDAs were assessed by Echocardiography before 4th day of life were followed up by once or twice echocardiography per week, the date of the echocardiogram was used as the ductal closure date when it was closed.

Results: Among the total cases (n=57), 19.30% experienced spontaneous PDA closure, while 80.70% had persistent DA. Initially, the mean PDA diameter was 1.84 ± 0.85 millimeters, with a median of 1.60 millimeters and a range from 1 to 5 millimeters. Upon follow-up, the mean PDA diameter decreased to 1.33 ± 1.03 millimeters, with a median of 1.10 millimeters range from 0 to 5 millimeters. This represents a closure percentage of 25.07%. There were highly statistically significant results between spontaneous PDA closure with gestational age, albumin. The results showed that duct closure increases with increased gestational age, high albumin level (p-value = 0.009, 0.02 respectively).

Conclusions: The rate of spontaneous PDA Closure in our study was 19.30%, so we concluded giving a chance for spontaneous closure of the duct. Factors associated with persistence of the duct opened included low gestational age. low albumin levels