Abstract
Chronic respiratory morbidity is a common complication of premature birth, generally defined by the presence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, both clinically and in trials of respiratory therapies. However, recent data have highlighted that bronchopulmonary dysplasia does not correlate with chronic respiratory morbidity in older children born preterm. Longitudinally evaluating pulmonary morbidity from early life through to childhood provides a more rational method of defining the continuum of chronic respiratory morbidity of prematurity, and offers new insights into the efficacy of neonatal respiratory interventions. The changing nature of preterm lung disease suggests that a multimodal approach using dynamic lung function assessment will be needed to assess the efficacy of a neonatal respiratory therapy and predict the long-term respiratory consequences of premature birth. Our aim is to review the literature regarding the long-term respiratory outcomes of neonatal respiratory strategies, the difficulties of assessing dynamic lung function in infants, and potential new solutions.
Abstract
Better measures are needed to predict chronic respiratory morbidity in survivors born prematurely http://ow.ly/1L3n30ihq9C
Footnotes
Author contributions: F. Ciuffini developed the concept and wrote the first draft under guidance from C.F. Robertson and D.G. Tingay. All authors contributed to redrafting the manuscript including tables.
Conflict of interest: None declared.
Support statement: This study is supported by the Victorian Government Operational Infrastructure Support Program (Melbourne, Australia). D.G. Tingay is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Career Development Fellowship (Grant ID 11123859). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
Provenance: Submitted article, peer reviewed.
- Received September 20, 2017.
- Accepted January 31, 2018.
- Copyright ©ERS 2018.
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