Table 4.

Blood oxygen contents and oxygen uptakes on the final day of saline or cortisol infusion or 5 days thereafter

	During Infusion		+5 Days Postinfusion		P Value (Two-Way ANOVA)
	Saline (n = 15)	Cortisol (n = 9)	Saline (n = 10)	Cortisol (n = 9)	Cortisol	Study day	Interaction
Fetal arterial blood gas status
pH	7.36 ± 0.01	7.34 ± 0.01	7.36 ± 0.01	7.33 ± 0.02	0.03	0.68	0.52
Po2, mmHg	18.6 ± 0.7	18.0 ± 1.2	20.4 ± 1.1	18.2 ± 1.1	0.16	0.33	0.40
Pco2, mmHg	52.0 ± 0.9	54.3 ± 0.8	52.1 ± 1.6	61.5 ± 4.0*	0.01	0.09	0.09
Hemoglobin, mg/dl	9.7 ± 0.4	9.6 ± 0.4	10.6 ± 0.4	10.3 ± 0.4	0.59	0.07	0.76
Hemoglobin saturation, %	52.9 ± 2.1	48.2 ± 4.8	51.9 ± 2.7	44.3 ± 3.8	0.07	0.47	0.66
Arterial blood O2 content, mM
Maternal	5.2 ± 0.2	5.2 ± 0.2	5.0 ± 0.2	5.4 ± 0.3	0.35	0.93	0.45
Fetal	3.2 ± 0.2	2.8 ± 0.2	3.4 ± 0.2	2.8 ± 0.3	0.03	0.57	0.76
Uterine O2 uptake, mmol/min	1,676 ± 244	1,667 ± 138	1,560 ± 171	1,977 ± 164	0.34	0.65	0.32
O2 consumption
Fetal, µmol/min	892 ± 46	943 ± 53	995 ± 96	1,107 ± 76	0.24	0.06	0.66
Fetal, µmol·min−1·kg fetus−1	305 ± 15	315 ± 20	281 ± 20	328 ± 29	0.18	0.79	0.38
Uteroplacental, µmol/min	859 ± 216	724 ± 153	564 ± 122	870 ± 159	0.64	0.69	0.24
Uteroplacental, µmol·min−1 kg·placenta−1	2,845 ± 691	2,276 ± 427	2,039 ± 401	2,766 ± 512	0.89	0.79	0.27

Values are means ± SE.

^*P < 0.05 vs. saline, least significant difference post hoc test. Bold values significant effect by two-way ANOVA.