Premium
THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURES ON PULMONARY GAS EXCHANGE and BLOOD GAS CHANGES AFTER BIRTH
Author(s) -
TUNELL RAGNAR
Publication year - 1975
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.1651-2227.1975.tb04380.x
Subject(s) - medicine , zoology , arterial blood , respiratory system , oxygen , rectal temperature , anesthesia , chemistry , biology , organic chemistry
. Tunell, R. (Department of Paediatrics, Karolinska Sjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden). The influence of different environmental temperatures on pulmonary gas exchange and blood gas changes after birth. Acta Paediatr Scand, 64:57, 1975.–The oxygen uptake ( V o2 ) and respiratory exchange ratio ( R ) was determined during the first 20 min and at one and at 2 hours after birth in 16 healthy full‐term newborn infants studied in different environmental temperatures. Arterial blood gases and acid‐base balance were determined on repeated blood samples from the abdominal aorta. The infants were grouped in a “warm” group ( n = 10) where efforts were made to avoid cooling after birth, and a “cold” group ( n =6) where a decrease in rectal temperature to a mean value of 35.4 o C at 2 hours occurred. Irrespective of environmental temperature, V o2 was approximately 10 ml/kg min during the first 8 min after birth, thereafter decreasing to about 6–7 ml/kg min. During the first 8 min the main increase in P a02 occurred and about 2 ml/kg min of the V 0 was accounted for by changes in oxygen stores after birth. At 16–20 min and at 60 min after birth a negative relationship was found between V o2 and P ao2 During the period 8–120 min after birth a close relationship was found between V o2 and the degree of muscular activity. Within 4–16 min after birth, R values above 1.0 were regularly found simultaneously with the main decrease in P aco2 . In infants kept “cold” a tendency to hyperventilate was found, probably elicited by cold stimuli. The rapid drop in deep body temperature regularly seen after birth could thus not be explained by a limited ability to increase pulmonary gas exchange. A high degree of evaporative heat loss, a relatively low “basal” metabolic rate and a limited response in “non‐shivering thermogenesis” seem to be the main reasons for the heat loss after birth.