Intraventricular haemorrhage which is a bleed in the compartments of the brain, can be a major complication in the birth of premature babies, and a factor which plays a significant role in this is cerebral autoregulation. This is the ability of the brain and body to maintain blood flow so as to prevent brain damage and even death in premature infants. The mechanisms which work to ensure this cerebral autoregulation is correctly functioning are complex and not fully understood.
The aim of this project is to analyse data such as blood pressure, heart function, brainwaves and blood flow to the brain which was collected from 40 premature infants in order to identify patterns in these parameters which hopefully may pave the way for development of monitoring system that can predict poor outcomes such as intraventricular haemorrhage in these infants.
If this occurs it will be a shift towards a more “multimodal monitoring” approach incorporating a multitude of different parameters measured from the premature infants in order to categorise those at risk of complications and thus begin treatment more promptly and effectively to try prevent bad outcomes from occuring.
