Adult Survivors Of Preterm Birth May Deal With Lung Issues

New findings published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society show that adult survivors of preterm births may have issues with lung capacity at an earlier age.

Researchers at the University of Oregon compared the lung function of adults born after fewer than 32 weeks to those born full-term.

They discovered that premature infants had an increased risk of contracting bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic respiratory condition mainly affecting infants born less than 28 weeks of age; this primarily affects preterm infants who receive oxygen therapy that helps them breathe. Furthermore, researchers found that infants with BPD were at a higher risk of subsequent development of chronic subsequent pulmonary disease (COPD), which makes it progressively more complicated to breathe.

However, treatment can cause lasting problems in the future. For instance, increased pressure from the ventilator that's used for treatment may result in tissue scarring of the lungs and complications from an early birth.

During the study, researchers broke participants into three main groups: 20 adults born prematurely with BPD, 15 adults born prematurely without BPD and a control group of 20 healthy adults born full-term. All went through a series of tests designed to examine lung function during exercise.

Findings revealed that adults born prematurely without BPD still dealt with symptoms of COPD in their mid-20s.

"We were expecting more variation between the two preterm groups -- with and without BPD," researchers concluded. "We didn't anticipate that they would share a similar lung profile."