Limb Blood Flow in the Normal and Sick Newborn

DISTURBANCES in the peripheral circulation and its distribution in severely ill newborn infants are a matter of common clinical observation. Such disturbances may, in part, account for the metabolic changes common in asphyxial states, and particularly in the respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn.1These observations have led us to an interest in the infant limb circulation. Young (1961)2has summarized the scanty information from the literature concerning the peripheral circulation in the term newborn human infant. Celander and Thunell ( 1961 )3obtained values for foot and calf blood flow which suggested that the rate of flow was higher in the first week of life than in adults, and Bruck et al ( 1957),4using an indirect method, concluded that vasomotor tone in the skin blood vessels was present in the first three days of life. We were unable to derive any data from the literature concerning the