Blood pressure in preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia in the first three months of life

Abstract

Background Neonatal hypertension is common in preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Our study aims to examine blood pressure variation in the first three months of life in preterm BPD patients. Methods We conducted a retrospective, single-centre study at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the University of Szeged, Hungary. We collected the blood pressure data of 26 preterm infants (less than 30 weeks' gestation) with moderate or severe BPD over three years (2019–2021). We calculated the BPD group's daily average blood pressure values and used previously defined normal blood pressure values as a reference. We used 19481 systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) measurement data separately to calculate daily average blood pressure. Results From the daily average blood pressure calculations, we found 11 patients (42%) with hypertensive blood pressure values for three or more days within the first 90 days of life. Within this group, acute kidney injury was present as a comorbidity in 54.5%. Daily blood pressure increases occurred most frequently (44%) between the 9th and 13th weeks of life. We found a statistically significant correlation between the blood pressure values of the BPD patient group and the reference data. The difference between the blood pressure curve of the patients with BPD and the reference data was also statistically significant. Conclusion The blood pressure of BPD patients correlates with but also significantly differs from the reference data. Calculating the daily average blood pressure can improve the diagnosis of neonatal hypertension compared to weekly average blood pressure-based investigations.