Humoral parameters of the vascular endothelium and hemostatic systems in preterm newborns with hypoxic CNS injury

Abstract

The paper gives the results of clinical and laboratory examinations in 164 newborns of different gestational ages with moderate and severe hypoxic (central nervous system) injury and in 25 healthy infants from a control group. In the early neonatal period, depending on the severity of prior hypoxia, endothelial dysfunction of the neonates was characterized by a shift of endocrine activity toward the formation of vasoconstrictors, high serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels, and a thrombogenic tendency of the hemostatic system with inadequate hemostatic properties of a blood clot, as evidenced by piezoelectric blood viscometry. At one month of life, the newborns of the study groups were recorded to have reduced serum activities of endothelin-1, von WUlebrand factor, and VEGF. Hemostatic parameters became normal in infants with moderate hypoxic CNS injury by the end of the neonatal period while the inadequate hemostatic properties of a blood clot with enhanced activity of the fibrinolytic system were retained in those with severe hypoxic CNS activity.