Abstract
We aimed in this study to determine the cardiac reserve in preterm infants with phonocardiogram. One hundred and fifty-four preterm infants participated in this study. The ratio of the first heart sound to the second heart sound (S1/S2), the ratio of diastolic to systolic duration (D/S) and the cardiac contractility change trend after stimulation (CCCTS) were measured in all infants. The preterm neonatal S1/S2 decreased with increasing gestational age, but the differences between each gestational stage were not significant (p > 0.05), while the D/S significantly increased with increasing gestational age (p < 0.05). After crying induced by vaccination, the D/S was significantly lower than that in quiet state at each gestational stage (p < 0.05). The CCCTS increased with increasing gestational weeks, but the differences between each gestational stage were not significant (p > 0.05).
Copyright and license
Copyright © 2011 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.