Cyclical fluctuations in blood pressure, heart rate and cerebral blood volume in preterm infants

Many recently published papers describe cyclical changes of cerebral circul atory variables, mainly in cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) performed wi th Doppler sonography. In this paper we focus on another important variable of cerebral circulation: on cerebral blood volume (CBV) measured by near i nfrared spectrophotometry (NIRS). In a retrospective analysis of NIRS measu rements in 20 preterm infants (median 27 3/7 weeks of gestation), the domin ating frequencies and prevalence of cyclical changes of CBV and its possibl e correlation with peripheral circulatory variables (mean arterial pressure and heart rate) was examined. In 19 out of the 20 infants cyclical changes of CBV were found within a frequency range of 2-4.7 cycles/min which is co mparable to the results of the Doppler studies describing fluctuations in C BFV. A dominating frequency of heart rate (HR), was found only in 12 out of 20 infants, and it was with 2.1-3.8 cycles/min in a similar range compared to CBV. In mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), however we detected cycles with longer periods every 1-2.5 min in 14 out of 20 infants. There was a s ignificant coherence between MABP/CBV and HR/CBV. The area under the cohere nce curve, however, was significantly larger between MABP and CBV as compar ed to HR and CBV (P = 0.0007, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.