Early prediction of bronchopulmonary dysplasia: can noninvasive monitoring methods be essential?

Abstract

Despite remarkable breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, the prevalence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants and the consequent mortality have remained high over the last half-century. The pathophysiology of BPD is complicated, with several causes. In addition, infants with severe BPD are predisposed to a variety of complications that need multidisciplinary collaboration during hospitalisation and post-discharge home treatment. Consequently, early prediction, precise prevention and individualised management have become the cornerstones of therapeutic care of preterm infants with BPD, thereby improving patient survival and prognosis. BPD has an operational clinical description; however, it has various clinical phenotypes and endotypes, making accurate prediction challenging. Currently, most approaches for predicting BPD in preterm infants include invasive collection of biofluids, which is inappropriate in fragile neonates. Consequently, researchers and clinicians are becoming more interested in noninvasive monitoring for BPD prediction. Comprehensive assessments of pertinent research, however, remain scarce. In this review, we compared many noninvasive monitoring techniques that contribute to early prediction of BPD development in premature infants.