NIRS cerebral patterns in healthy late preterm and term infants are gender‐ and gestational age‐dependent

AIM Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been proposed to provide reliable information concerning brain oximetry and tissue activation level in the perinatal period. We aimed to investigate whether NIRS brain patterns in healthy preterm (PT) and term (T) infants were gender- and gestational age (GA)-dependent. METHODS We conducted an observational study in 74 newborns, from consecutive singleton pregnancies, of whom 37 were born at term (male: n = 19 female: n = 18) and 37 (male: n = 18 female: n = 19) were PT. Cerebral oximetry (crSO2 ) and fractional tissue oxygen extraction (cFTOE), were recorded on the 5th day from birth. RESULTS crSO2 was significantly higher and cFTOE lower (p