Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026
The Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy Model of Perinatal Ischemia
Published on: November 19, 2008
Postnatal laboratory timers of antenatal hypoxemic-ischemic brain damage
Richard L Naeye1, Michele L Shaffer
1Department of Pathology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
Objective:
Markers were sought to identify the antenatal starting times and rates at which brain damage advanced in children with hypoxemic-ischemic cerebral palsy.
Study Design:
Fetal bradycardia's onset marked the damage's start. Using this baseline, the following were tested as additional timers of the damage's onset: serial blood counts of neonates' normoblasts, platelets, lymphocytes,differences at birth between base excess values in umbilical arterial and venous bloods,brain damage patterns.
Results:
Each timer had a broad antenatal time frame within which it could identify specific damage starting times. The broad time frames are as follows: Blood lymphocyte counts: 0.45 to 13.8 hours before birth, blood normoblast counts: 0.45 to 55.0 hours before birth, blood platelet counts: 0.5 to >72 hours before birth. Brain damage patterns: 0.4 to >0.7 hour before birth. Hyperventilating and hyperoxygenating neonates greatly accelerated the damage's advance.
Conclusions:
Commonly obtained laboratory values and brain images can identify when such brain damage began and the rate at which it advanced.
