Neonatal encepalopathy

OBJECTIVE: Recent clinical studies suggested that intrapartum maternal fever is a strong independent risk factor for neonatal encephalopathy. With use of a well-studied rat model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encepalopathy, this study investigated the hypothesis that intraischemic hyperthermia accelerates and worsens brain injury in immature animals and examined whether apoptotic cell death machinery is involved in the underlying mechanisms. STUDY DESIGN: Seven-day-old rats underwent a combination of left common carotid artery ligation and exposure to 8% oxygen for 15 minutes (n = 32 rats)...

Pregnancy complications, drugs and surgical interventions during pregnancy, fetal growth, medications and interventions during labor, labor complications as well as fetal heart activity during labor in a group of 114 term infants without malformations, but with signs of central nervous system (CNS) damage throughout early neonatal period are compared with paired group of term healthy infants born in the same presentation and mode of delivery. Among prelabor factors only maternal hypertension (found in 16.7% of encephalopathy children versus 0...