Skin and subcutaneous blood flows of very low birth weight infants during the first 3 postnatal days

Abstract

Objective. To determine whether skin and subcutaneous blood flow measurements using a novel laser Doppler flow meter are useful for evaluating the cardiovascular status of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants during the early postnatal period.Methods. In eight VLBW infants and eight non-VLBW infants born at Tokyo University Hospital between May 2007 and April 2008, forehead and lower limb skin blood flows were measured continuously for 72 h. Data were averaged every 8 h, and the t-test was used for analysis.Results. In VLBW infants, forehead blood flow started to increase from the start of measurement to 32 h (16.6 ± 3.9 ml/min vs. 24.1 ± 2.1 ml/min; p = 0.002 compared with 8 h) and remained constant thereafter. Lower limb blood flow increased rapidly after 24 h (22.2 ± 5.5 ml/min vs. 29.5 ± 5.0 ml/min; p = 0.002 compared with 8 h) and continued increasing thereafter. In contrast, blood flows remained constant in non-VLBW infants.Conclusions. The results showed that skin and subcutaneous perfusion in VLBW infants increased spontaneously at around 24 h. Differences in blood flow changes between VLBW and non-VLBW infants demonstrate that these parameters successfully identified physiological changes in tissue perfusion in VLBW infants.