Respiratory outcomes and atopy in school-age children who were preterm at birth, with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia

OBJECTIVE To assess pulmonary function and the prevalence of atopy in school-age children who were very low birth weight as infants and to compare those who had bronchopulmonary dysplasia to those who did not. METHOD We studied 85 (39 male and 46 female) at a mean age of 84 (range, 62 to 107) months who were very low birth weight infants. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was defined as oxygen dependency at 36 weeks gestational age. We excluded 8 patients (4 for cerebral palsy and 4 for no collaboration). Detailed perinatal and clinical data were collected. Lung function was evaluated using conventional spirometry. Atopy (assessed by the allergy skin-prick test) was considered when at least one positive skin test occurred in a panel of the most common environmental allergens in the local region. Comparisons between the bronchopulmonary dysplasia and no bronchopulmonary dysplasia groups were performed using the Mann-Whitney, x2 and Fisher's exact tests. RESULTS We compared the bronchopulmonary dysplasia (n = 13) and no bronchopulmonary dysplasia (n = 64) groups. Atopy was observed in 4 (30.8%) of the bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients and in 17 (26.6%) of the no bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients (p = 0.742). Two (15.4%) patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia had a family history of atopy vs. 17 (26.6%) in the no bronchopulmonary dysplasia group (p = 0.5). Lung function tests showed airway obstruction in 2 (15.4%) of the bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients and in 10 (15.6%) of the no bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients (p = 1.0). Four (33.3%) of the bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients had small airway obstruction vs. 14 (22.2%) of the no bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients (p = 0.466). CONCLUSION Our data showed no significant differences in lung function between bronchopulmonary dysplasia and no bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients at school age and no evidence of an association between atopy and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.