[Correlation between acidosis and consumptional coagulopathy in foetal blood (author's transl)]

Comparative chemical tests, under laboratory conditions, of 20 newborns with normal pH and 20 children with acidotic pH values in blood obtained from the umbilical artery have shown that in newborns medium acidosis resulted frequently is disseminated intravascular coagulation, whereas advanced acidosis led to the same situation with regularity. The thrombocytes, coagulation factors II and V, of the authors' acidotic newborns were clearly exposed to consumption. Thrombin time, partial thromboplastin time, and reptilase coagulation time were prolonged with significance. All coagulation parameters were found to correlate linearly with the postnatal pH values. Systematic efforts to detect disseminated intravascular coagulation should be made in all cases in which the postnatal umbilical artery pH of newborns in 7.09 and below. Determination of haematocrit, thrombocyte count, and fibrinogen degradation products may be sufficient as an immediate-action minimum programme in such cases.