No abstract

Background and Aims Total body hypothermia (cooling) improves outcome in hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE).This study tested the hypothesis that cooling affects the liver by examining whether cooling during HIE was associated with differences in clinically relevant biomarkers of hepatic metabolism. Methods Clinical records in 3 centres were searched for babies with HIE and umbilical artery pH at birth ≤ 7.0 born between 01/07/2006 and 30/06/2011. Each centre adopted routine cooling on a different date. The results of blood tests reflecting hepatic metabolism measured according to clinical practice within 7 days of birth were collected. ANOVA was used to assess the associations between extreme values of each analyte, HIE grade and the use of cooling and to calculate estimated marginal means for each condition.