Clinical Pulmonary Function Testing for Children with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (Report‪)‬

Introduction OVER THE PAST 3 decades, advances in prenatal and neonatal intensive care have contributed to marked improvements in survival rates for extremely preterm infants. (1-5) However, the prevalence of pulmonary sequelae in such infants has not declined. (6-8) This, combined with an overall increase in the incidence of spontaneous live preterm births, (9) means that the respiratory burden of preterm birth (including that relating to late preterm births (10)), is increasing in clinical, financial, and social terms. (11-13) Despite the increased respiratory morbidity in survivors of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), clinical follow-up beyond infancy tends to concentrate on neurological outcomes and rarely includes objective assessments of pulmonary function. As discussed below, this may reflect a lack of awareness of the increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in later life that such individuals face. (14,15)