A neonate who has a blue tint to her skin, has a pulse of less than 100 bpm, and has an irregular rate of breathing could score an APGAR score of 8.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The APGAR score assesses five criteria: heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, reflex irritability, and skin color. Each is scored on a scale of 0 to 2, for a maximum total score of 10. A neonate with a pulse of less than 100 bpm would score 1 for heart rate, a blue tint to the skin would score 1 or 0 depending on the extent (0 if the body is blue, 1 if just the extremities are blue), and an irregular rate of breathing might score 1 for respiratory effort. This already suggests the score could be lower than 8 when also considering muscle tone and reflex irritability.

A Neonate Who Has a Blue Tint to Her Skin