What is it about?

Despite birth being a universal experience that profoundly changes cardiovascular physiological, little is known about how the coronaries change at this pivotal moment. We studied how blood flow to the left ventricular heart muscle changed between the late gestation sheep fetus and the newborn lamb with both the conventional approach of a flow probe, as well as by myocardial contrast echocardiography. We found that blood flow at rest and during maximal vasodilation are lower in the newborn than in the lamb, but that the relative difference between resting and maximal flow is similar.

Why is it important?

Impairment of blood flow to the heart muscle is a major cause of sickness and death worldwide. Although this is not usually a problem in the newborn, understanding development of the coronaries will help us understand disease and health through the lifespan.

Find this paper in Physiological Reports and in Pubmed