Infants born preterm remain vulnerable to numerous health complications, such as respiratory distress syndrome, chronic lung disease, and pulmonary dysfunction. Moreover, extremely low gestational age neonates (ELGANs), or babies born more than 3 months before the expected date of birth (< 29 weeks gestational age), have a higher likelihood of contracting bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a breathing disorder where the infants' lungs are irritated and do not develop normally. A careful assessment of lung function is, therefore, crucial for monitoring the respiratory outcomes in such premature infants.
Existing methods to evaluate lung function such as spirometry are limited by the need to perform forced exhalations. While impulse oscillometry (IOS), a non-invasive alternative, permits the measurement of lung respiratory mechanics without requiring forced expiration, there has been no report of an effective multicenter study design utilizing IOS to assess the lung function in ELGANs. A recent study, led by researchers from the Department of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA and published in Pediatric Investigation on 25 September 2024, sheds important light on the suitability of IOS for testing lung function in a large multicenter ELGAN population.
" Despite the non-invasive nature of IOS, it has not been widely utilized to evaluate lung health in the ELGAN population. This motivated us to report our methods and success in implementing a multicenter protoc.