In Reply: Cerebral Blood Flow
1 Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital, 225 Dickinson Street, San Diego, CA 92103
Baylen and Emmanouilides give the impression that their abstract was misquoted in our commentary. We would like to explain our interpretation of their data.
In the abstract, Baylen et al indicate that they measured regional blood flows (RBF) in premature fetal lambs, expressing them as a percentage of the left ventricular output (LVO) before and after patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) closure. Their results (percent of LVO) before and after PDA closure were: lung, 42.7% vs 8.4% (P < .01); carcass, 35% vs 55% (P < .01); heart, 5.5% vs 10.2% (P < .05); gastrointestinal tract, 5.1% vs 9.3% (P < .05); brain, 2.7% vs 3.4% (P = NS); kidney, 2.2% vs 3.3% (P = NS); liver, 3.2% vs 5.7% (P = NS).




