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Portal and Atrial Pressures in the Newborn Period
Author(s) -
ARCILLA RENE A.,
OH WILLIAM,
LIND JOHN,
BLANKENSHIP WILLARD
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1966.tb15262.x
Subject(s) - medicine , left atrial pressure , central venous pressure , portal venous pressure , cardiology , atrium (architecture) , anesthesia , blood pressure , portal hypertension , heart rate , atrial fibrillation , cirrhosis
Summary The effect of placental transfusion upon the portal and atrial pressures of 93 normal newborn infants, ½ to 14 hours of age, was studied. In 34 cases, clamping of the cord was done within 5 to 10 seconds after delivery (EC group); in 59 cases, it was performed after cessation of the umbilical pulsations (LC group). The portal pressure was always higher than that of the right atrium by an average of 5.6 mm Hg. The portal pressure curves had no venous waves and revealed regular inspiratory rise and expiratory fall. The mean portal pressure of all EC infants was 6.3 (±O.40 S.E.) mm Hg, and that of LC infants 6.5 (±0.23 S.E.) mm Hg. There was no significant difference in the portal pressures of both groups at the various ages. The atrial pressures of the LC infants were higher than those of the EC infants during the first 60 minutes following birth (P <0.001). Thereafter, the difference between the 2 groups was not significant. The atrial pressures of the LC infants were high before one hour of age but dropped to about half by the second hour and later. In contrast, those of the EC subjects remained about the same in the various age groups. Left atrial pressure was always greater than that of the right at all ages in both groups. In addition, the left atrial curves showed prominent “v” waves not observed in the right atrial tracings. The higher atrial pressure observed in the LC infants immediately after birth is attributed to the large placental transfusion allowed these subjects. The pressure drop and its stabilization after the first hour presumably reflects the effective accommodation of the augmented blood volume by the low‐pressure reservoir of the cardiovascular system.