Blood Pressure Measurements in the Newborn

Mean Arterial Pressure in Extremely Low Birth Weight Concordant and Discordant Twins During the First Day of Life

“…19 Whether in small or large prematures, MAP increased from birth to 24 hours. 8,10,14,21,24,29 Our data show that concordant large, concordant small, discordant large, discordant small, and TTTX small infants all followed similar trends. As Heigy et al 27 summarized, ''Transitional postnatal changes in cardiac output and vascular resistance are similar in all infants regardless of birth weight.…”

“…21 To minimize errors, we used the same cuff size and, because there were no significant differences in OBP values between upper and lower extremities, we averaged all readings. 14 Arterial pressure measurements through a 3.5F umbilical catheter are reproducible 22,23 but could be affected by dampening of the signals.…”

“…As a matter of fact, these MAP values were similar to those previously reported for stable infants of comparable birth weight and GA by us 14 and by others. 8,21 In large premature infants, blood pressure has been reported to correlate with birth weight, 21,22,31 a fact supported by the lower MAP noted in concordant when compared with large discordant twins (almost 250 g heavier). This has not been observed in infants whose birth weights were 750 g, 14,26,27 a fact in line with our data that showed no significant MAP differences between small (669±71 g) and large (731±84 g) concordant twins.…”

“…12,21 -23,26,30,31 Nuntnarumit et al 21 studied 103 infants 23 to 40 wGA and reported lower MAP for those 26 wGA. We corroborated that observation in an earlier investigation 14 as well as in the present study.…”

A Randomized-Controlled Trial of Prophylactic Hydrocortisone Supplementation for the Prevention of Hypotension in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants

“…Both the definition and treatment of hypotension are controversial in ELBW infants, but we felt that this was the best available methodology at the time of study design. 28,29 Since blood pressure is dependent upon gestational and postnatal age, 30,31 defining normal blood pressure using distributions of values in populations is problematic. This is especially true when standards for all premature infants are applied to ELBW infants, because published studies generally include few infants at very early gestations and extremely low birth weights.…”