• Patrizia Zaramella, Federica Freato, Valentina Quaresima, Marco Ferrari, Andrea Vianello, Diego Giongo, Lorena Conte, and Lino Chiandetti.
• Department of Pediatrics, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, University of Padova, Italy.
• J Perinatol. 2005 Jun 1; 25 (6): 417-22.

ObjectiveIn critically ill neonates, peripheral perfusion and oxygenation assessment may provide indirect information on the circulatory failure of vital organs during circulatory shock. The development of pulse oximetry has recently made it possible to calculate the perfusion index (PI), obtained from the ratio between the pulsatile and nonpulsatile signals of absorbed light. The main goals of this study were: (1) to study foot PI; and (2) to evaluate the relationship between foot PI, obtained continuously by pulse oximetry, and a number of variables, i.e. blood flow (BF), oxygen delivery (DO(2)), oxygen consumption (VO(2)), and fractional oxygen extraction (FOE), measured indirectly by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) on the calf in 43 healthy term neonates (weight 3474.6 +/- 466.9 g; gestational age 39.1 +/- 1.4 weeks).Study DesignCalf BF, DO(2) and VO(2) were assessed by NIRS on short-lived venous and arterial occlusion maneuvers. PI was measured on the contralateral foot.ResultsFoot PI was 1.26 +/- 0.39. There was a positive correlation between foot PI and both calf BF (r = 0.32, p = 0.03) and DO(2) (r = 0.32, p = 0.03), but no correlation was found between foot PI and calf FOE and between foot PI and VO(2).ConclusionsIn the neonatal intensive care unit, continuously measuring foot PI by pulse oximetry seems clinically more feasible for peripheral perfusion monitoring than spot measurements of the calf BF and/or VO(2) by indirect NIRS.

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