NIRS study of cerebral oxygenation and hemodynamics in neonate at birth.

To study the changes of cerebral oxygenation and hemodynamics in normal neonates at 2-5 min post-birth and understand the effects of pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) upon cerebral oxygenation and hemodynamics in newborn neonates. The near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was employed to measure the absolute quantity of brain tissue oxygen saturation (rSO2) in newborn neonates and the changes of concentrations of deoxyhemoglobin (Hb) and oxygenation hemoglobin (HbO2) with time relative to initial values to further obtain the changes of total hemoglobin (tHb) and cerebral perfusion (denoted by HbD). In normal neonates at 2-5 min post-birth, rSO2 increased while tHb remained relatively stable and HbD increased. In neonates born of PIH mothers at 3-5 min post-birth, the changes of tHb were markedly higher than those in the normal infants, p<0.05; at 2-5 min post-birth, the changes were markedly lower than the normal term infants. We concluded that NIRS can detect the changes of cerebral oxygenation and blood flow in a non-invasive and effective way.