RT Journal
A1 KRAUSS AN
T1 PUlmonary function following feeding in low-birth-weight infants-reply
JF American Journal of Diseases of Children
JO American Journal of Diseases of Children
YR 1979
FD February 1
VO 133
IS 2
SP 221
OP 221
DO 10.1001/archpedi.1979.02130020113028
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.1979.02130020113028
AB In Reply.—All four infants in this study demonstrated a drop in peripheral blood flow, either immediately on completion of feeding or within five minutes of feeding. In two, prefeeding levels of blood flow returned within 15 minutes of feeding; in the other two, within 30 minutes. The mean drop in blood flow was approximately 1.25 ± 0.95 mL/min/dL of limb volume. This is similar in magnitude although not as long in duration as the drop reported by Yao and colleagues.1Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit at the New York Hospital are provided with indwelling arterial catheters because of apparent or anticipated respiratory distress or shock. Many of these low-birth-weight, high-risk infants stabilize within a short period after admission. Since this cannot always be predicted, and because of the assistance possible from intra-aortic blood gas values and blood pressures, umbilical arterial catheters are placed. Precisely because those