PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Sandeep Shetty AU - Ann Hickey AU - Gerrard F Rafferty AU - Janet L Peacock AU - Anne Greenough TI - Work of breathing during CPAP and heated humidified high-flow nasal cannula AID - 10.1136/archdischild-2015-309310 DP - 2016 Sep 01 TA - Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition PG - F404--F407 VI - 101 IP - 5 4099 - http://fn.bmj.com/content/101/5/F404.short 4100 - http://fn.bmj.com/content/101/5/F404.full SO - Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed2016 Sep 01; 101 AB - Objective To determine whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) compared with heated humidified, high-flow nasal cannula (HHFNC) in infants with evolving or established bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) reduced the work of breathing (WOB) and thoracoabdominal asynchrony (TAA) and improved oxygen saturation (SaO2).Design Randomised crossover study.Setting Tertiary neonatal unit.Patients 20 infants (median gestational age of 27.6 weeks (range 24.6–31.9 weeks)) were studied at a median postnatal age of 30.9 weeks (range 28.1–39.1 weeks).Interventions Infants were studied on 2 consecutive days. On the first study day, they were randomised to either CPAP or HHFNC each for 2 h, the order being reversed on the second day.Main outcome measures The WOB was assessed by measuring the pressure time product of the diaphragm (PTPdi). PTPdi, TAA and SaO2 were assessed during the final 5 min of each 2 h period and the results on the two study days were meaned.Results There were no significant differences in the results on CPAP versus HHFNC: mean PTPdi 226 (range 126–294) versus 224 cm H2O/s/min (95% CI for difference: −27 to 22; p=0.85) (range 170–318) (p=0.82), mean TAA 13.4° (range 4.51°–23.32°) versus 14.01° (range 4.25°–23.86°) (95% CI for difference: −3.9 to 2.8: p=0.73) (p=0.63) and mean SaO2 95% (range 93%–100%) versus 95% (94%–99%), (95% CI for difference −1.8 to 0.5; p=0.25) (p=0.45).Conclusion In infants with evolving or established BPD, CPAP compared with HHFNC offered no significant advantage with regard to the WOB, degree of asynchrony or oxygen saturation.