Relationship between temperature variability and brain injury on magnetic resonance imaging in cooled newborn infants after perinatal asphyxia.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study was whether temperature management during therapeutic hypothermia correlates with the severity of brain injury assessed on magnetic resonance imaging in term infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

STUDY DESIGN

Prospectively collected register data from the National Asphyxia and Cooling Register of Switzerland were analyzed.

RESULT

Fifty-five newborn infants were cooled for 72 h with a target temperature range of 33 to 34 °C. Individual temperature variability (odds ratio (OR) 40.17 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.37 to 1037.67)) and percentage of temperatures within the target range (OR 0.95 (95% CI 0.90 to 0.98)) were associated with the severity of brain injury seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Neither the percentage of measured temperatures above (OR 1.08 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.21)) nor below (OR 0.99 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.07) the target range was associated with the severity of brain injury seen on MRI.

CONCLUSION

In a national perinatal asphyxia cohort, temperature variability and percentage of temperatures within the target temperature range were associated with the severity of brain injury.