1 Department of Pediatrics, University of Pavia, Italy
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Bologna, Italy
The electrocardiogram of the newborn infant, taken with right precordial leads, shows upright T-wave. During the first few hours the T-wave becomes diphasic and by the twenty-fourth hour of life becomes negative.1-3
Very interesting studies by Lind in newborn humans and pigs and human fetuses have shown that the administration of catecholamines can induce upright T-waves in the right precordial leads at 24 hours. This phenomenon is supposedly related to the effect of the sympatheticomimetic amines (? epinephrine) upon pressure in the pulmonary circulation.4-6