Intact cord resuscitation versus early cord clamping in the treatment of depressed newborn infants during the first 10 minutes of birth (Nepcord III) – a randomized clinical trial

Table 3 Measurements from infants who were randomized to resuscitation with an intact cord (intervention) or after early cord clamping (control). Only infants handled according to allocation (per protocol) analyzed

	Cord Clamping Group, Mean (SD)		Difference (95% CI)	P value^a
	Intact cord > 3 min	Early < 1 min	Difference (95% CI)	P value^a
Readings from pulse oximeter	(n = 63)	(n = 93)
Saturation at 1 min (%)	79.8 (3.6)	62.4 (4.3)	17.4 (16.1 to 18.7)	<.001
Saturation at 5 min (%)	91.4 (3.1)	76.6 (4.1)	14.8 (13.6 to 16.0)	<.001
Saturation at 10 min (%)	98.0 (1.4)	85.4 (2.7)	12.6 (11.8 to 13.3)	<.001
Heart rate at 1 min	105 (3)	116 (5)	−11 (−12 to −10)	<.001
Heart rate at 5 min	125 (3)	134 (4)	−9 (−10 to −7)	<.001
Heart rate at 10 min	137 (2)	135 (2)	2 (1 to 2)	<.001
Apgar score	(n = 63)	(n = 93)
Apgar at 1 min	5.7 (0.9)	4.3 (0.9)	1.4 (1.1 to 1.6)	<.001
Apgar at 5 min	7.0 (0.5)	6.6 (0.9)	0.5 (0.2 to 0.7)	<.001
Apgar at 10 min	9.6 (0.7)	9.0 (1.3)	0.6 (0.2 to 1.0)	.001
Timed events, Median (interquartile range)	(n = 65)	(n = 97)
Time of start of resuscitation (sec)	40 (22 to 60)	45 (25 to 59)		.62^b
Time of first cry/breath (sec)	34 (28 to 39)	45 (38 to 50)		<.001^b
Time of regular breathing (sec)^c	69 (34 to 399)	98 (89 to 356)		<.001^b
Time to cord clamping (sec)	192 (188 to 200)	25 (14 to 40)		<.001^b
Measurements after resuscitation
Baby’s temperature (C°) 30 min after birth^d	36.2 (0.6)	36.2 (0.5)	0.0 (−0.2 to 0.2)	.82
Transcutaneous bilirubin (μmol/L) at discharge^e	94.4 (44.1)	89.1 (52.6)	5.3 (−11.0 to 21.7)	.52

^aCalculated using an unpaired 2-tailed t test
^bCalculated using Mann Whitney U test
^cIntact cord group n = 65 and the early group n = 93
^dIntact cord group n = 64 and the early group n = 90
^eAge (hours) at discharge was median (interquartile range) 22.5 (16.2 to 32.1) in the intact cord group (n = 61) vs 22.2 (14.5 to 33.9) in the early group (n = 95), p = .81

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