Transcutaneous P02 Monitoring in Infants With Persistent Fetal Circulation Who Are Receiving Tolazoline Therapy
1 Department of Pediatrics, Brown University Program in Medicine, Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island Providence, Rhode Island
Tolazoline (Priscoline) hydrochloride has been suggested as an effective pulmonary vasodilator in infants with persistent fetal circulation.1.2 The drug can potentially cause systemic vasodilation, hypotension, and cutaneous flushing. Transcutaneous P02 (TcPO2) monitoring has been shown to be a reliable adjunct in the care of the critically ill neonate.3 Peabody et al.4 have reported that tolazoline adversely affects the correlation of TcPO2 and PaO2 and warned against relying on this technique during the administration of the drug. Since instantaneous TcPO2, monitoring in infants who have persistent fetal circulation and who are receiving tolazoline may be useful, we undertook this investigation to evaluate its reliability.




