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Hypoxaemia in infants with respiratory tract infections
Author(s) -
Poets CF,
Stebbens VA,
Alexander JR,
Arrowsmith WA,
Salfield SAW,
Southall DP
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.tb12290.x
Subject(s) - medicine , respiratory tract , respiratory system , respiratory tract infections , hypoxemia , pediatrics , upper respiratory tract infection , anesthesia , oxygen saturation , oxygen , chemistry , organic chemistry
Nineteen infants who were graduates from special care baby units underwent two overnight tape recordings of oxygen saturation (SaO 2 ) and breathing movements; one during an upper ( n = 12) or lower ( n =7) respiratory tract infection and the other when free of infection. Baseline SaO 2 was lower during infection (median 99.6 vs 100%, p <0.01), with four patients having values (84.3‐95.5%) below the normal lower limit for full‐term infants (97%). The median number of apnoeic pauses was also lower during respiratory tract infection (4.7 vs 15.7/h, p <0.02). The median number of episodic desaturations (SaO 2 ≤ 80%) did not change significantly (1.3 vs 1.9/h, p >0.05), with the exception of one patient who had extremely increased values during infection for both apnoeic pauses (63/h) and desaturations (112/h). No infant, however, was considered clinically hypoxaemic. Clinically unsuspected hypoxaemia may thus occur during respiratory tract infection in a proportion of infants graduating from special care baby units. Such hypoxacmia may have potentially deleterious effects.