Barlow B, Santulli T V
Surgery. 1975 May;77(5):687-90.
Necrotizing enterocolitis, a highly lethal disease in the newborn infant characterized by ischemic necrosis of the gastrointestinal tract frequently leading to perforation, is seen primarily in low birth weight infants who have undergone stress, such as hypoxia. In an animal model it was demonstrated that cold stress was as effective as hypoxia in producing the disease in formula-fed newborn rats. Breast milk was completely protective in both cold- and hypoxic-stressed animals. Presumably cold stress produces the same selective circulatory ischemia as does hypoxia. The experiment further supports the concept that any insult or stress which decreases mesenteric blood flow may initiate the changes leading to necrotizing enterocolitis. It was shown also that the incidence of the disease in formula-fed rats was related directly to the number of episodes of either cold or hypoxic stress. These results suggest that a critical amount of ischemia is necessary to initiate these changes and may help to explain the fact that not all infants exposed to hypoxia or cold stress developthe disease.
坏死性小肠结肠炎是一种在新生儿中具有高度致死性的疾病，其特征为胃肠道缺血性坏死，常导致穿孔，主要见于经历过诸如缺氧等应激的低体重儿。在动物模型中已证实，冷应激在人工喂养的新生大鼠中引发该疾病的效果与缺氧相同。母乳对冷应激和缺氧应激的动物均具有完全的保护作用。据推测，冷应激与缺氧一样会产生相同的选择性循环缺血。该实验进一步支持了这样的概念，即任何降低肠系膜血流的损伤或应激都可能引发导致坏死性小肠结肠炎的变化。研究还表明，人工喂养大鼠中该疾病的发病率与冷应激或缺氧应激的发作次数直接相关。这些结果表明，引发这些变化需要一定量的缺血，这或许有助于解释并非所有暴露于缺氧或冷应激的婴儿都会患上该疾病这一事实。
