Cerebral oxygen saturation and peripheral perfusion in the extremely premature infant with intraventricular and/or pulmonary haemorrhage early in life.

Extremely preterm infants are at higher risk of pulmonary (PH) and intraventricular (IVH) haemorrhage during the transitioning physiology due to immature cardiovascular system. Monitoring of haemodynamics can detect early abnormal circulation that may lead to these complications. We described time-frequency relationships between near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) cerebral regional haemoglobin oxygen saturation (CrSO) and preductal peripheral perfusion index (PI), capillary oxygen saturation (SpO) and heart rate (HR) in extremely preterm infants in the first 72 h of life. Patients were sub-grouped in infants with PH and/or IVH (N  = 8) and healthy controls (N  = 11). Data were decomposed in wavelets allowing the analysis of localized variations of power. This approach allowed to quantify the percentage of time of significant cross-correlation, semblance, gain (transfer function) and coherence between signals. Ultra-low frequencies (<0.28 mHz) were analyzed as slow and prolonged periods of impaired circulation are considered more detrimental than transient fluctuations. Cross-correlation between CrSO and oximetry (PI, SpO and HR) as well as in-phase semblance and gain between CrSO and HR were significantly lower while anti-phase semblance between CrSO and HR was significantly higher in PH-IVH infants compared to controls. These differences may reflect haemodynamic instability associated with cerebrovascular autoregulation and hemorrhagic complications observed during the transitioning physiology.