Intraventricular hemorrhage and vitamin E in the very low-birth weight infant: Evidence for efficacy of early intramuscular vitamin E administration
1984
Speer, Michael E. | Blifeld, Cindy | Rudolph, Arnold J. | Chadda, Prabhujett | Holbein, Blair | Hitter, Helen M.
To determine whether early intramuscular vitamin E supplementation influences the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in infants with birth weight 1,500 g, data were analyzed from 134 infants enrolled on a protocol to evaluate the efficacy of intramuscular plus oral vitamin E versus oral supplementation alone in the treatment of retrolental fibroplasia. All 134 infants received, via nasogastric tube, 100 mg/kg/d of vitamin E daily for at least 8 weeks with the first dose administered within the first eight hours of life. Sixty-four patients received, in addition, intramuscular vitamin E on days 1, 2, 4, and 6 of life and 70 patients received placebo injections in a randomized double-blind fashion. In the first week, vitamin E plasma levels were significantly higher in the 64 patients given intramuscular vitamin E. In spite of this difference no change in the incidence of sepsis of necrotizing enterocolitis was observed. Both the incidence and severity of intraventricular hemorrhage were reduced significantly in the patients given intramuscular vitamin E as compared to the patients given placebo. The data suggest that vitamin E, a natural antioxidant, may play an important role in protecting the CNS microcirculation from the effects of hypoxic/ischemic injury.(Author)
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by National Agricultural Library