This score is used to asses the health of a newborn child immediately after birth. It is calculated at 1 and 5 minutes after birth and repeated serially if scores are low. It is named after Virginia Apgar, an American anesthesiologist who created the score in 1952 to quickly and uniformly evaluate a child's health at birth.
The score can be remembered with the help of the APGAR mnemonic:
A - appearance
P - pulse
G - grimace
A - activity
R - respiration
The total score should be interpreted as follows: