2017 Volume 77 Issue 1 Pages 74-81
Despite the progress in perinatal care, the long-term prognosis of very-low-birth-weight infants （VLBWI） has remained controversial. It is reported that these children have respiratory dysfunction upon reaching school age. Spirometry has been the standard method for measuring respiratory function; however, the procedure is difficult for school-age children. The Forced Oscillation Technique （Forced Oscillation Technique: FOT） is a novel method. Our study was undertaken to evaluate the respiratory function of school-age children who were born as very low-birth-weight infants （VLBWI） using FOT （Mostgraph）. For school-age children who visited the Showa University Hospital of Pediatrics from May 2013 until March 2016, who were born as VLBWI, we examined two types of respiratory function tests （FOT and spirometry）. Also, we evaluated the correlation between participant’s characteristics and FOT values. We used Wilcoxon t test to determine statistical significance （p＜0.05）. Twenty-one children between the age of 6.4 and 13.2 were evaluated. The characteristics were as follows: 15 （71.5％） were small forgestational age （SGA）, 7 （33.3％） had chronic lung disease （CLD）, 4 （19.0％） had CLDgiven oxygen at 36 weeks corrected age, and 5 （23.8％） had pregnancy-induced hypertension （PIH）. FOT was carried out for all children in correct procedure, but spirometry was done in 13 children （61.9％）. All FOT values exceeded the standard value, especially more than 20％at ％X5（reactance at 5Hz）, ％Fres（resonant frequency）. In addition, CLDgroup tended to have a high value ％X5 （％X5≧150） compared to the standardgroup. ％R5 （resistance at 5Hz） and ％R20 （resistance at 20Hz）showed a significant difference in PIH cases. The respiratory function could be evaluated by FOT, although we had some cases that could not be evaluated by spirometry. Our data showed that respiratory function has a tendency to be decreased in school-age children of VLBWI. FOT might be a respiratory function test in the future for children.
