Premium
Respiratory water loss and oxygen consumption in full‐term infants exposed to cold air on the first day after birth
Author(s) -
Sjörs G,
Hammarlund K,
Kjartansson S,
Riesenfeld T,
Sedin G
Publication year - 1994
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.1651-2227.1994.tb13147.x
Subject(s) - medicine , full term , term (time) , respiratory system , oxygen , common cold , pediatrics , consumption (sociology) , intensive care medicine , pregnancy , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , biology , social science , genetics , quantum mechanics , sociology , immunology
Respiratory water loss, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production and skin blood flow were measured continuously in nine full‐term infants on the first day after birth. After at least 18 min of measurements with the infant asleep in an incubator, with an air temperature of 33°C and a relative humidity of 50%, the temperature of the incubator air was lowered to less than 27.5°C. This resulted in a significant decrease in skin temperature and peripheral skin blood flow, while the infant's core temperature remained unchanged. At the same time, mean respiratory water loss increased from 3.7 to 6.1 mg/kg‐min, which can be explained partially by the decrease in ambient humidity that accompanied the decrease in air temperature. In addition, mean oxygen consumption increased from 5.3 to 7.9 ml/kg. min and mean carbon dioxide production increased from 3.8 to 5.9 ml/kg‐min. There was no concomitant increase in motor activity. Thus, when the newborn infants were exposed to cool air, they reacted with an increase in respiratory water loss, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production before their core temperature was affected and without increasing their motor activity.