Abstract
ABSTRACT: Spectral analysis was applied to blood pressure and cerebral blood flow velocity recordings in premature infants with respiratory distress in order to quantify respiration-induced cardiovascular variability. Aortic blood pressure was transduced via an umbilical arterial catheter and cerebral blood flow velocity measured in the anterior cerebral artery using a 10 MHz continuous wave Doppler velocimeter in 16 infants ≤32 wk gestational age. Spectral analysis of the resulting waveforms revealed heart rate and respiratory rate components whose relative amplitudes (heart rate/respiratory rate amplitude ratio) represent an index of that component of variability induced by respiratory events. The mean (heart rate/respiratory rate amplitude) ratio was 47.2 in spontaneously breathing infants and rose to 165.9 in infants who were ventilated during muscle paralysis (p = 0.0003). Cerebral blood flow velocity recordings showed R components in only 22 of 38 simultaneous recordings. This method can be used to quantify respiration-induced cardiovascular variability and its response to therapy, and may provide a means of identifying infants at risk from brain injury due to an inability to regulate cerebral blood flow.
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Bignall, S., Bailey, P., Rivers, R. et al. Quantification of Cardiovascular Instability in Premature Infants Using Spectral Analysis of Waveforms. Pediatr Res 23, 398–401 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198804000-00012
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198804000-00012
