PEDIATRICS Vol. 78 No. 6 December 1986, pp. 1106-1113
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Ontogenic Development of Gastrointestinal Motility: IV. Duodenal Contractions in Preterm Infants

Frank H. Morriss Jr MD1, Marylynn Moore BSN1, Norman W. Weisbrodt PhD1, and M. Stewart West BA1

1 From the University Childrens Hospital at Hermann, Departments of Pediatrics and of Physiology and Cell Biology, Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Duodenal motility was studied by intraluminal manometry in 27 healthy infants of 26 to 42 weeks, gestational age. The frequency of contractions, the number of contractions per burst, and the intraluminal peak pressure during contractions all increased during a narrow postconceptual period, 29 to 32 weeks, regardless of length of gestation before birth. Antenatal beta-methasone administration to the mothers of 11 additional infants of 26 to 32 weeks gestational age was associated with creased duodenal contraction rate, number of contracintions per burst, and intraluminal peak pressure compared with infants of similar gestational age whose mothers did not receive beta-methasone. The maturational effect of beta-methasone on duodenal motility was most pronounced in infants whose gestational age at birth was 26 to 29 weeks. Seven infants of 31 weeks' or longer gestational duration who had a CNS abnormality or insult had fasting duodenal contraction rates that were less than one half of the rate for normal infants of similar gestational age. These observations suggest that neonatal duodenal motility undergoes marked maturational changes between 29 and 32 weeks after conception and that these changes may be inducible before 29 weeks by corticosteroid administration. An intact CNS appears to be required for full expression of the maturational changes.

Key Words: beta-methasone • central nervous system abnormality • duodenal contraction rate • duodenal motility • intraluminal peak pressure

Submitted on January 21, 1986
Accepted on March 18, 1986




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