Neonatal death in Northern Ireland

A survey of neonatal deaths occurring over two years in Northern Ireland disclosed that many hospitals where babies could be born probably could not be staffed and equipped to deal effectively with major perinatal problems. The incidence of congenital malformations, especially neural tube defects, was high. A reduction in neonatal deaths from this cause might be expected if facilities for antenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy were made available, although this raises grave ethical problems. Many infants died of prematurity and the idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome. A considerable reduction in neonatal deaths might be expected with improved care at the place of delivery backed by a regional centre with facilities for transporting and treating severely ill infants needing intensive care.

The effects of hyperventilation on the reflex cardiac response from the carotid bodies in the cat

1. Cats were anaesthetized with chloralose and urethane, and ventilated by an artificial intermittent negative pressure applied to the thorax. The carotid body chemoreceptors were isolated and perfused with oxygenated blood. They were stimulated by substituting hypoxic blood obtained from a donor animal.2. Stimulation of the carotid bodies during constant ventilation caused a bradycardia. When an artificial hyperventilation was induced during carotid body stimulation the heart rate increased.3. The increase in heart rate during hyperventilation, and while the carotid bodies were being stimulated, was due to at least two mechanisms, first a reflex from the lungs and secondly a fall in arterial blood P(CO) (2), both of which accompany the hyperventilation.