부산대학교 도서관

The PCr/Piratio is an index of the energetic status of tissue. To see whether this ratio gave prognostic information, we used phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure PCr/Piin the brains of 6 normal infants and on 71 occasions in 30 infants with neonatal neurological abnormalities due, for example, to birth-asphyxia, periventricular haemorrhage and early cerebral infarction. In the normal infants PCr/Piranged from 1.10 to 1.71 (mean 1.35). PCr/Pifell below this range in 24 of the 30 abnormal infants and below 0.8 in 16 of them. 8 of the 16 infants with PCr/Piratios below 0.8 died in the neonatal period from predominantly cerebral causes and all 8 survivors were neurodevelopmentally abnormal at a mean age of 7 months. Among the 20 infants whose PCr/Piratios were always 0.8 or above, 2 died (one aged 3 weeks with congenital abnormalities including Moebius syndrome and the other, who had Prader-Willi syndrome, as a cot death aged 9 months): 3 infants were neurodevelopmentally abnormal aged 4, 9 and 10 months, and the remaining 15 infants were progressing normally at a mean age of 6 months.We conclude that PCr/Piratios below 0.8 were associated with a very poor prognosis, and may indicate irreversibly deranged cerebral metabolism.