Left ventricular output and aortic blood flow in response to changes in preload and afterload in the preterm piglet heart

摘要

Threatened preterm labor is often treated with maternal glucocorticoids to help develop the lungs and improve neonatal outcomes. There is evidence that maternal glucocorticoids advance the structural maturity of the neonatal heart in sheep (20, 21) and pigs (Kim, MY, unpublished observations). It is not known whether these structural changes result in improved myocardial function, although treatment does improve some cardiovascular parameters in human neonates (26), and infants exposed to maternal glucocorticoids have a reduced incidence of low SBF (27).