Abstract
Background: The clinical presentation of schoolchildren with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is not established. The aim of this study was to compare clinical assessments of children with BPD and asthma.
Methods: The study population consisted of 30 schoolchildren with BPD (10.4 years/born at 26.6 weeks´ gestation) and 30 age- and sex-matched children with asthma and atopy, at Astrid Lindgren children's hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Outcomes were dynamic and static lung volumes, exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO, ppb.), bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) based on increase FEV1% post B2-agonist and challenges of metacholine (PD:20 µmol) and mannitol (PD:15 mg), together with applied asthma control test (C-ACT) and use of control medication.
Results: Lung function parameters of FEV1% (77 vs. 84), FEV1/FVC% (85 vs. 91), FEF50% (61 vs. 80) and diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DL%, 81 vs. 88) were all reduced in children with BPD compared to children with asthma (p-values 0.001-0.042). FeNO was significantly lower in children with BPD (12 vs. 23, p=0.019), but static lung volumes and BHR showed no differences between the groups (FEV1% post B2-agonist 5.6 vs. 6.1, p=0.73, PD:20 1.6 vs. 1.5, p=0.94 and PD:15 299 vs. 323, p=0.48). Use of control medication was less frequent (43% vs. 100%, p<0.001) in the BPD-group compared to the asthma-group, as well as less impaired markers of respiratory symptoms in the C-ACT (22.8 vs. 24.8, p=0.003).
Conclusions: In spite of BHR, the clinical presentation of schoolchildren with BPD seems different compared to children with asthma in terms of lower lung function, normal FeNO-levels, fewer asthma-like symptoms and limited use of control medication.
- © 2014 ERS
