Abstract
Serial measurements of functional residual capacity (FRC) were made in 22 infants (median gestational age at delivery 32 weeks, range 25–40) during the first 2 years of life. All infants had been delivered from pregnancies complicated by prolonged and preterm rupture of the membranes (PPROM) of at least 1 week in duration. The onset of membrane rupture was at a median of 26 weeks (range 15–32) with a median duration of 5.5 weeks (range 1–21). The mean FRC at all postnatal ages studied: 25 ml/kg at 6 and 12 months and 24ml/kg at 18 and 24 months did not differ significantly from the control population (mean 24ml/kg). There was, however, a wider scatter of results in the study population: four infants born very preterm consistently had FRC results above the 95% confidence limits of the controls but only two infants had FRCs consistently below this range. These results suggest PPROM may not be an invariable association of abnormal antenatal lung growth.
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Abbreviations
- FRC:
-
functional residual capacity
- KCH:
-
King's College Hospital
- PPROM:
-
prolonged and premature rupture of the membranes
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Thompson, P., Greenough, A. & Nicolaides, K.H. Longitudinal assessment of infant lung function following pregnancies complicated by prolonged and preterm rupture of the membranes. Eur J Pediatr 151, 455–457 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01959363
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01959363