Doctors do not apply criteria for Apgar scoring consistently. Lopriore and colleagues (p 143) asked 166 paediatricians in the Netherlands to apply the Apgar score to three hypothetical presentations of newborns. They found no uniformity in scoring among doctors, particularly in assessment of respiratory efforts in intubated newborn babies. Paediatricians should follow Apgar's original definition more strictly, say the authors, and consensus on scoring intubated babies should be reached.
. 2004 Jul 17;329(7458):0.