Temporal changes in fetal cardiovascular, behavioural, metabolic and endocrine responses to maternally administered dexamethasone in the late gestation fetal sheep

Abstract

The effects of dexamethasone on fetal heart rate variation are more complex than previously described with both a fall and an increase observed depending on the time at which heart rate variation was measured after injection. Dexamethasone also caused a significant fall in fetal PaO2, and although this was not to hypoxic levels in normoxic fetuses it does raise questions about the potential impact of dexamethasone on chronically hypoxic fetuses.