Neonatal hypertriglyceridemia: a new index of antepartum-intrapartum fetal stress?

The 95th percentile value of cord serum triglyceride concentration in 82 consecutively live born infants was found to be 0.79 mmol/l. This level was arbitrarily used to define neonatal hypertriglyceridemia. A comparison between 78 normotriglyceridemic and 61 hypertriglyceridemic newborn infants showed a significant association between elevated cord serum triglyceride concentration and insufficiency of the placenta, fetal bradycardia, meconium-stained amniotic fluid and one-minute Apgar score less than or equal to 7. A significantly (p less than 0.001) greater number of infants with one or several of these four factors, indicating antepartum and/or intrapartum fetal stress were found to be hypertriglyceridemic at birth. This finding suggests that estimation of cord serum triglyceride which is easy and inexpensive might be of value for a more complete evaluation of the newborn infant, and can serve as a supplement to the Apgar Score system.