Source: International Congress 2016 – Origins of infant pulmonary disease: early pointers for identifying infants at risk and ways to improve their care
Disease area: Paediatric lung diseases

Abstract

Background: Postnatal steroids reduce the incidence of BPD in very prematurely born children, but studies of their impact on lung function in childhood have yielded conflicting resultsAims and objectives: To assess the influence of postnatal corticosteroids on lung function of very prematurely born children aged 11-14 years.Methods: Lung function was assessed in 244 children (born median gestational age of 27+0 (23+6-28+6) weeks) at 12.5 (range 11.3-14.9) years. Airway function was assessed by measurement of forced expiratory flow at 75%, 50% and 25% of the expired vital capacity (FEF₂₅, FEF₅₀, FEF₇₅), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) and peak expiratory flow (PEF). Lung volumes were assessed by forced vital capacity (FVC) and residual volume (RV) and functional residual capacity by plethysmography (FRC_pleth).Results: Airway function and the lung volumes of the 68 children who had been exposed to steroids differed significantly from those not exposed

Lung Function and Steroid Exposure

		Steroid Exposure
Lung Function	N	No	Yes	P value
FEF75 z score	244	-0.937 (0.89)	-1.442 (0.76)	<0.001
FEF50 z score	244	-1.040 (0.87)	-1.691 (0.81)	<0.001
FEF25 z score	244	-0.814 (0.89)	-1.490 (0.85)	<0.001
FEF25-75 z score	227	-1.245 (1.02)	-2.016 (1.01)	<0.001
FEV₁ z score	244	-0.549 (0.97)	-1.371 (1.08)	<0.001
FVC z score	244	-0.237 (0.91)	-0.699 (1.07)	0.001
FEV₁:FVC z score	244	-1.166 (1.59)	-2.203 (2.04)	<0.001
PEF % of predicted	243	85.7 (15.0)	77.4 (14.4)	<0.001
RV z score	207	0.149 (0.08)	1.172 (0.22)	<0.001
FRCpleth z score	214	-0.226 (0.09)	0.325 (0.19)	0.005

 

Conclusion: These results suggest postnatal corticosteroids have long term adverse effects on lung function in this population.
Data are expressed as the mean (SD)

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Citations should be made in the following way:
Christopher Harris (London, United Kingdom), Christopher Harris, Sanja Zivanovic, Mireia Alcazar-Paris, Jessica Lo, Alan Lunt, Neil Marlow, Sandra Calvert, Janet Peacock, Anne Greenough. Postnatal corticosteroids and lung function at school age in very prematurely born infants. Eur Respir J 2016; 48: Suppl. 60, 247

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