Bruce D. Ackerman

PERINATAL ASPHYXIA AND RESIDUAL PLACENTAL BLOOD VOLUME

The present data suggest that perinatal asphyxia may result in a transfer of blood, in utero, from placenta to fetus. The data contain no suggestion that asphyxia causes pooling of fetal blood in the placenta.

Congenital syphilis: Observations on laboratory diagnosis of intrauterine infection

Summary A fatal case of congenital syphilis is presented with extremely severe, but very sharply localized skin manifestations. The infants VDRL titer was 2 tube dilutions higher than the mothers, even though the infants serum showed an apparent absence of IgM. It appears that a detectable IgM elevation in the newborn infant is not a constant finding in all types of intrauterine infection.

Placental respiration in the immediate neonatal period

Abstract The umbilical cord was double clamped from one second before to 37 seconds after birth for 30 healthy term newborn infants. Twenty-eight of these infants were born vaginally, in the cephalic presentation, and 2 were born by elective cesarean section. Up to 6 breaths occurred before clamping. The mean umbilical vein (UV) minus umbilical artery (UA) differences were: for pH, 0.10 ± 0.04; for Pco 2 , −17 ± 11 mm. Hg; for Po 2 , 14 ± 6 mm. Hg. The mean UV-UA difference for oxygen content, calculated from the Po 2 difference and the hemoglobin concentration, was 7.5 ± 3.6 vol. per cent. These differences showed no tendency to decrease from birth to 37 seconds. These data indicate that placental gas exchange is just as efficient at 37 seconds after delivery as it is at birth.

Perinatal acidosis and placental transfusion.

Umbilical artery pH and residual placental blood volume (RPBV) were determined for 75 full‐term newborn infants born by vaginal delivery. For 39 infants of multiparous mothers (IMM), there was a significant relationship between fetal acidosis and reduced RPBV. For 36 infants of primiparous mothers (IPM) a significant relationship was not present. Results of an earlier study suggested that perinatal acidosis was associated with reduced RPBV. The present study confirms this association for IMMs. The reason for the lack of a clearcut effect in IPMs is unknown.