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Cardiovascular effects of carbon dioxide in ventilated preterm infants
Author(s) -
Fenton AC,
Woods KL,
Leanage R,
AbuHarb M,
Levene MI,
Evans DH,
Field DJ
Publication year - 1992
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.1651-2227.1992.tb12282.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiac output , vascular resistance , stroke volume , blood pressure , carbon dioxide , cardiology , hemodynamics , anesthesia , blood flow , heart rate , ecology , biology
Sick preterm infants may, under certain conditions, demonstrate blood pressure passive cerebral blood flow in response to changes in arterial carbon dioxide tension. Blood pressure in turn depends on cardiac output and peripheral resistance. A Doppler technique for assessing cardiac output compared favourably in terms of reproducibility to a thermodilution technique in a group of infants undergoing cardiac catheterization for congenital heart disease. Doppler was subsequently used to monitor changes in cardiac output following an increase in arterial carbon dioxide tension of 1 kPa in 25 ventilated preterm infants. Blood pressure increased significantly ( p = 0.006). However, heart rate did not change significantly ( p = 0.16) and, in addition, both stroke and minute volume decreased ( p = 0.023, p = 0.02, respectively). This suggests that accompanying changes in components of peripheral resistance exert important effects on blood pressure in the preterm neonate in response to changes in arterial carbon dioxide tension.