Chronic morbidities of premature newborns

Abstract

The most important chronic morbidities of premature newborns, deeply influencing quality of life, are retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia. Since the rate of premature birth has not decreased in recent years in Hungary, and treatments of these end stage disorders are extremely difficult, prevention gains tremendous significance. Effective prevention is based on detailed knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms of these special diseases having multifactorial nature sharing several common risk factors, and one is the pathological angiogenesis. This sensitive system is affected by several stress situations which are the consequences of prematurity leading to abnormal vascular growth. After birth, relative hyperoxia, compared to intrauterine life, and decreasing concentrations of vascular growth factors result in vascular injury, moreover, may cause vessel apoptosis. The consequence of this phenomenon is the activation of hypoxia responsible genes resulting in robust pathological neovascularization and organ damage during the later phase. Saving normal angiogenesis and inhibiting reactive neovascularization may lead to better quality of life in these premature infants.