Cord blood coagulation studies in infants of high-risk pregnant women.

A prospective study of cord blood for coagulability, evidence for disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and hematocrit was done in 106 infants who were offspring of mothers with high-risk pregnancies (pre-eclampsia, diabets mellitus, third-trimester bleeders, severe erythroblastosis fetalis, maternal hypertension, fetal distress, and spontaneous premature labor). Significant changes of hypercoagulability (low AT-III and abnormal TEG) were seen in the third-trimester bleeder and premature labor groups which also had the highest incidence of IRDS and necrotizing. Infants undergoing "stress" (pre-eclampsia, fetal distress) had elevated levels of factors V and VIII but were not hypercoagulable or AT-III deficient. Except for mild thrombocytopenia, infants of the diabetic mothers, a group with increased thrombotic complications, did not show any cord blood abnormalities. Offspring of third-trimester bleeders were anemic. The EBF infants were also anemic, severely hypercoagulable, and showed coagulation changes compatible with severe liver disease and/or DIC. Mild changes compatible with intravascular coagulation were seen in six infants and were not related to the the development of IRDS.