Carbohydrate Reserves in the Newborn Infant

Abstract

Tissue samples from 14 fresh stillbirths and 116 infants who had died within two weeks of birth, and muscle-biopsy samples from 10 other infants, have been analysed for their total carbohydrate content. The results obtained from infants dying within four hours of birth suggested that during the last third of pregnancy the foetal liver carbohydrate rises to about twice, and the skeletalmuscle carbohydrate to three to five times, the adult level. The carbohydrate concentration in the heart probably remains at about 10 times the adult level throughout this period. The carbohydrate levels in the older infants varied with age, maturity, and clinical history. In infants with minimal respiratory distress the liver carbohydrate fell to about 10% of the level at term within a few hours of birth and the skeletal-muscle carbohydrate fell to adult levels; there was no abrupt change in cardiac carbohydrate. Much lower values were observed in infants with persistent respiratory distress and the diaphragm carbohydrate was usually exhausted. Unexpectedly low carbohydrate levels were also observed in babies who were “small for dates” and in three exceptionally large babies. The results are discussed in relation to other species and to their possible significance. © 1964, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.