Postnatal Laboratory Timers of Antenatal Hypoxemic–Ischemic Brain Damage.

OBJECTIVE:Markers were sought to identify the antenatal starting times and rates at which brain damage advanced in children with hypoxemic–ischemic cerebral palsy.STUDY DESIGN:Fetal bradycardia's onset marked the damage's start. Using this baseline, the following were tested as additional timers of the damage's onset: serial blood counts of neonates’ normoblasts, platelets, lymphocytes,differences at birth between base excess values in umbilical arterial and venous bloods,brain damage patterns.RESULTS:Each timer had a broad antenatal time frame within which it could identify specific damage starting times. The broad time frames are as follows: Blood lymphocyte counts: 0.45 to 13.8 hours before birth, blood normoblast counts: 0.45 to 55.0 hours before birth, blood platelet counts: 0.5 to >72 hours before birth.Brain damage patterns: 0.4 to >0.7 hour before birth. Hyperventilating and hyperoxygenating neonates greatly accelerated the damage's advance.CONCLUSIONS:Commonly obtained laboratory values and brain images can identify when such brain damage began and the rate at which it advanced.Journal of Perinatology (2005) 25, 664–668. doi:10.1038/sj.jp.7211367; published online 4 August 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]