[Cerebral blood flow in healthy newborn infants in the early neonatal period].

Dynamic Doppler scanning studies of brain blood flow were carried out in 78 healthy newborns in the first days of their lives. The measurements were carried out in the internal carotid, basilar , anterior, median, and posterior cerebral arteries at the age of 30 min, 2 h, 1, 2, 3, and 4 days. Vascular resistance of brain vessels was assessed and the resistance index estimated. This index was found to increase by the second hour of life (p less than 0.001) in the anterior, median, and internal carotid arteries, whereas no noticeable changes in this index value were recorded in the basilar and posterior cerebral arteries. The resistance index reduced in all the examined arteries starting from the end of the first day of life. Parallel with these studies, arterial pressure was measured in all the examinees by the oscillographic method, and found reduced by the second hour of life. This permitted a conclusion on the reduction of the brain blood flow by the second hour of life and its elevation starting from the second day of life. Pulsed Dopplerography method is noninvasive, highly informative, and holds good promise for studies of the brain blood flow in the newborns.