[Disorders of cardiac rhythm in children with pre- and perinatal damage of the brain].

Alterations in the cardiac rhythm were analyzed in 108 children with pre- and perinatal hypoxic-traumatic brain injuries. Comparisons were made with the data obtained in a group of 30 normal children. The data of the clinical and electrophysiological assessment of the encephalopathy gravity were correlated with the regularity of the cardiac rhythm: heart rate (HR), mode (M), mode amplitude (MA), variation swing (VS), tension index (TI) according to R. M. Baevsky and redundancy coefficient (RC). It has been established that the encephalopathic children demonstrated an increase in the HR, TI and MA and a fall of the M and VS. The intensity of the alterations under study correlated well with the gravity of pre- and perinatal brain injuries. The TI, MA and R were of the highest diagnostic value. Taking into consideration of the magnitude of cardiac rhythm alterations one can predict neurological sequelae detectable in children aged 2 years.