INTRODUCTION
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic pulmonary disease that
mainly affects extremely preterm infants (< 28 weeks
gestational age [GA]), is one of the most common and serious
complications of prematurity1 and is associated with
increased respiratory morbidity and reduced pulmonary function
throughout childhood and adolescence2,3. The condition
is a consequence of an arrest of lung development during late fetal and
early postnatal life and can predispose individuals with BPD to chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease in adulthood4. Notably,
asthma prevalence is reported to be higher in children and adolescents
who were born preterm, and the risk of asthma increases in proportion to
the degree of prematurity5. Given that preterm infants
with BPD have also experienced early lung injury, they would be expected
to have a higher prevalence of long-term asthma symptoms than preterm
infants without BPD. However, this association has not been thoroughly
assessed, and it remains unclear whether BPD is a risk factor for asthma
in childhood and adolescence, irrespective of
prematurity6.
Most follow-up studies on pulmonary function and respiratory morbidity
in adolescents have focused on BPD
occurring in the pre-surfactant era or “classic” BPD, which is
characterized by lung damage from oxygen toxicity and mechanical
ventilation. To date, improvements in neonatal care have led to a
less-severe form of
BPD
that occurs in more premature infants. Nevertheless, most previous
studies on this “new” BPD focused on patients between 6 and 12 years
old, but data is sparse on patients > 12 years
old7.
This study aimed to evaluate pulmonary function, asthma symptom
prevalence, and quality of life in a group of adolescents who were born
extremely preterm in the post-surfactant era and developed “new” BPD.
The results were compared with those obtained from 2 other groups of
former preterm adolescents, who did not develop BPD.