Increased cerebral blood volume and oxygen consumption in neonatal brain injury.

With the increasing interest in treatments for neonatal brain injury, bedside methods for detecting and assessing injury status and evolution are needed. We aimed to determine whether cerebral tissue oxygenation (StO(2)), cerebral blood volume (CBV), and estimates of relative cerebral oxygen consumption (rCMRO(2)) determined by bedside frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (FD-NIRS) have the potential to distinguish neonates with brain injury from those with non-brain issues and healthy controls. We recruited 43 neonates < or =15 days old and >33 weeks gestational age (GA): 14 with imaging evidence of brain injury, 29 without suspicion of brain injury (4 unstable, 6 stable, and 19 healthy).