Lung disease study hope for premature babies

Medics from the University of Leicester, King's College London and Medway hospitals are involved in the trial. Results of a similar US based study have recently been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Britain has the highest rate of premature babies in Europe – this particular treatment would help very premature babies. Up to 40% of the 4,000 babies born under 28 weeks could benefit.

Chronic lung disease occurs when babies are born before their lungs have full developed, or there is too much stress on the lungs from ventilators. It is a cause of long-term lung complications and brain damage in very low birthweight babies.

David Field, Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Leicester, who is part of the study team, said: “Leicester is involved as this has been a research interest of ours for some time.

“This research is potentially very important – but we've a long way to go before we understand the best way to use nitric oxide and the babies that could be most helped.

“The intervention is very costly and this is only the second study to show a positive effect in premature babies – half a dozen other studies have had either no effect or a negative effect.

“It also appears that it does not help the sickest, most immature babies. So the current study in Europe, which we are involved with, is testing the same hypothesis as the US study but in a European population as there are many things that differ in relation to premature baby care between the US and Europe.

Early results will take another 2 years.

Media Contact

Alex Jelley alfa

More Information:

http://www.le.ac.uk

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors