You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn in extremely preterm infants: a Japanese cohort study
  1. Hidehiko Nakanishi,
  2. Hideyo Suenaga,
  3. Atsushi Uchiyama,
  4. Satoshi Kusuda
  5. on behalf of the Neonatal Research Network, Japan
  1. Maternal and Perinatal Center, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Shinjuku-ku, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Hidehiko Nakanishi, Maternal and Perinatal Center, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan; hidehiko{at}qf6.so-net.ne.jp

Abstract

Objective To investigate the characteristics of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) in extremely preterm infants and its impact on neurodevelopmental outcomes at 3 years of age.

Design A retrospective multicentre cohort study.

Settings 202 tertiary perinatal centres registered in the Neonatal Research Network of Japan (NRNJ).

Patients Infants born at <28 weeks of gestational age (GA), between 2003 and 2012, were extracted from tertiary perinatal centres participating in NRNJ.

Main outcome measures Demographic characteristics, morbidity, interventions and mortality were compared for infants with and without PPHN. Multivariable logistic analysis was performed to evaluate the impact of PPHN on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes (the prevalence rate of cerebral palsy, need for home oxygen therapy, and visual, hearing and cognitive impairment) at 3 years of age.

Results The prevalence of PPHN among the 12 954 extremely preterm infants enrolled was 8.1% (95% CI 7.7% to 8.6%), with the trend increasing annually, and a higher proportion as GA decreased: 18.5% (range, 15.2% to 22.4%) for infants born at 22 weeks compared with 4.4% (range, 3.8% to 5.2%) for those born at 27 weeks. Clinical chorioamnionitis and premature rupture of membranes were associated with PPHN. On multivariate analysis of the data from 5923 infants followed up for 3 years, PPHN was a significant independent risk factor for visual impairment (adjusted OR, 1.42, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.97).

Conclusions The prevalence of PPHN in extremely preterm infants has been increasing over the past decade in Japan. Clinicians should be aware of visual impairments as a neurodevelopmental abnormality among infants with PPHN.

  • persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn
  • extremely preterm infants

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2017-313778

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors HN conceptualised and designed the study, contributed to data collection, analysis and interpretation, drafted the initial manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted. HS helped with conceptualisation and design of the study, critically reviewed the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted. AU conceptualised and designed the study, co-ordinated and supervised data collection, analysis and interpretation, reviewed and revised the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted. SK conceptualised and designed the study, co-ordinated and supervised data collection, analysis and interpretation, reviewed and revised the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted.

    • Disclaimer None

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained from the parents/guardian.

    • Ethics approval Our protocol was approved by the central internal review board at Tokyo Women’s Medical University, where all data were collected and stored.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.