Abstract
Chronic lung disease (CLD), defined as chronic oxygen dependency, is a common outcome of neonatal intensive care. It occurs most frequently in infants born very prematurely, but also in infants born at term who had severe lung disease and those with abnormal antenatal lung growth due particularly to reduction in fetal breathing movements, amniotic fluid volume or intrathoracic space. There are, however, other causes and the importance of antenatal infection/inflammation regarding impairment of antenatal lung growth is increasingly recognised. Affected infants can suffer chronic respiratory morbidity including an excess of respiratory symptoms and lung function abnormalities even in adulthood. Antenatal interventions directed at improving lung growth are available, but require testing inappropriately designed trials with pulmonary function at follow-up as an outcome.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 339 - 344 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Seminars in fetal & neonatal medicine |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2009 |
Keywords
- Risk Factors
- Lung Diseases
- Humans
- Infant, Newborn
- Prenatal Care
- Chronic Disease
- Infant, Premature
- Glucocorticoids
- Male
- Female
- Pregnancy