TY - JOUR T1 - Ventilation inhomogeneity in preterm children at school age JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P4660 AU - Sophie Yammine AU - Florian Singer AU - Anne Schmidt AU - Oliver Sutter AU - Urs Frey AU - Philipp Latzin Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P4660.abstract N2 - Background Preterm birth with or without subsequent chronic lung disease was shown to be associated with increased ventilation inhomogeneity (VI) in the neonatal period, but little is known at later age.Objective To assess VI in formerly preterm born children at school age.Methods 34 preterm and 27 term-born children performed triplicate nitrogen multiple-breath washout (MBW), nitrogen single-breath washout (SBW) and helium-sulfurhexafluoride mixture SBW at school age. We compared the lung clearance index (LCI), Scond and Sacin from MBW and the slope of phase III (SIII) from SBW. Z-scores were derived from the term-born controls.Results Mean age of the preterm children was 10.1 (range 8.0 to 12.8) years, mean gestational age at birth was 28.6 (24.9 to 34.7) weeks. VI measured by the following parameters was significantly increased in preterms: Scond with mean difference of 1.27 (0.58 - 1.96) z-scores, SIII from nitrogen SBW with mean difference of 0.96 (0.12 - 1.79) z-scores and SIII from the gas mixture SBW with mean difference of 1.96 (0.92 - 3.00) z-scores. Neither LCI nor Sacin differed significantly between preterm and term-born children, mean differences (95% CI) were 0.37 (-0.31 - 1.05) and 0.48 (-0.24 - 1.20) z-scores.Conclusion Former preterms show increased VI compared to term born children at school age. Regional VI in the lung periphery seems to be more affected than global VI measured by LCI. Varying differences of measured parameters between preterm and term-born children suggest a complex pattern of disturbed lung development in different regions of the airways. ER -