Umbilical artery eucapnic pH to assess fetal well-being.

Background: Umbilical artery gas results help obstetricians assess fetal well-being during labor and guide screening decisions on eligibility for therapeutic hypothermia (ie, whole-body or head cooling). The accuracy of results, especially for the base deficit on arterial cord gas analysis, in predicting brain injury is questioned. A novel biomarker specifically calculated for fetal acid-base physiology and response to asphyxia-neonatal eucapnic pH as a marker of neonatal metabolic acidosis-has the potential to be an accurate predictor of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Eucapnic pH coupled with arterial cord pH improves hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy prediction.

Objective: To consider the classical use of "pH < 7.0 and/or a base deficiency ≥12 mmol/L" as markers of the risk of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), recalling various criticisms of the use of these markers in favor of that of neonatal eucapnic pH, which appears to be a better marker of this risk.

Methods: Fifty-five cases of acidemia with pH < 7.

Umbilical artery carbon dioxide decreases the risk for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy.

Aim: An accurate biomarker for metabolic acidosis at birth is needed. Our aims were to investigate the link between umbilical artery pCO and the risk for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) and to compare false-negative screen results in newborn infants with HIE using three umbilical artery blood gas biomarkers.

Methods: From a cohort of newborn infants ≥35 weeks born in Ottawa, Canada, between January 2007 and December 2016, we highlighted those with HIE or who died.

Comparisons between umbilical cord biomarkers for newborn hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Background: Cord blood umbilical artery (Ua) pH, base deficit (BD), and pH eucapnic Blickstein/Green-50 may mislead clinicians to identify newborns at risk for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Neonatal eucapnic pH (pH euc-n Racinet-54) may be a comprehensive alternative. The goal of the study is to compare the predictive performance of these four biomarkers for the combined primary outcome of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy/death.

Umbilical artery base deficit/excess: sailing blindly in a thick fog.

Assessing the wellbeing of newborns at birth with base deficit (BD)/base excess(BE) is well anchored in clinicians' practice. However, clinicians may not fully understand the concepts behind BD and the concerns regarding the validity of BD results provided by the hospital laboratory. These concerns are linked to the inconsistencies between the equations to calculate BD, and that these equations do not consider the aspects of acid-base physiology at birth.

[Perinatal asphyxia and cerebral palsy: medicolegal implications].

Over the last 30 years, improvements in obstetric practice (systematic fetal perpartum monitoring, Caesarean section, etc.) have markedly reduced the incidence of perinatal asphyxia, especially in the perpartum period. Yet the incidence of cerebral palsy has remained stable, at around 2 per 1000 live births, owing to the fact that this disorder is generally due to antenatal factors.

The effects of prolonged ambulation on labor with epidural analgesia.

Unlabelled: Ambulation during labor is becoming more popular, although its impact on the progress of labor and on pain intensity remains unclear. We wondered whether prolonged ambulation with epidural analgesia had a possible effect on duration of labor and pain. In this prospective, randomized trial, 61 parturients with uncomplicated term pregnancies were allocated to be recumbent (n = 31) or to ambulate (n = 30).