ABSTRACT

Cardiopulmonary problems dominate the first days of life for prematurely born infants especially those with lower birth weight. Despite improved ventilation, exogenous surfactant and postnatal corticosteroids, bronchopulmonary dysplasia rates remain high. Yet, the extent to which birth weight and neonatal cardiopulmonary morbidity affects adult cardiac and pulmonary function has not been examined. The Developmental Origins Theory proposes that prenatal stress provokes adaptive changes in endocrine and metabolic processes that become permanently programmed (Barker, 2007). The purpose of this study is to examine cardiac and pulmonary function at age 23 years in a prospectively followed sample of prematurely born infants and a term born comparison group. Secondly, we aimed to examine the relative effects of birth weight, neonatal acuity, gender and current fitness on cardiac and pulmonary outcomes at age 23 years.