Peripartum hypoxic risk and cognitive outcome: A study of term and pretermbirth children at early school age

The authors examined the relationships between gestational maturity, perina tal hypoxic risk, and intellectual outcome in early school-age children. Th e sample was composed of 48 children whose arterial pH obtained within 3 hr after delivery was between 7.3 (the lower end of the normal range) and 7.1 (the lower end of the moderately acidotic range). Gestational maturity did not account for a significant proportion of variance in outcome, whereas a rterial pH was found to be significantly related to subsequent intellectual performance. The observed relationship between peripartum arterial pH and cognitive performance is especially noteworthy because the arterial pH rang e was restricted. The authors conclude that a " dose-response " relationshi p can be observed between arterial pH and intellectual outcome at early sch ool age, even when the lower end of the acidotic range is truncated above t he pH level that is thought to reflect severe asphyxia neonatorum.