Original ArticlesPulmonary Function at Hospital Discharge in Preterm Infants Randomized to a Single Rescue Course of Antenatal Steroids
Section snippets
Methods
This study is an extension of a previously published prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study of the impact of rescue antenatal steroids on pulmonary mechanics measured after delivery (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00669383).5 In brief, the study was conducted at the neonatal intensive care units at Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, Oregon) and Sacred Heart Hospital (Pensacola, Florida). Randomization was stratified by gestational age at rescue antenatal steroid dosing (≤28 vs >28
Results
As reported previously, patients were recruited from June 2001 through May 2007. Of the 135 women approached to participate in the study, 27 declined participation and 23 showed no further evidence of preterm labor. The remaining 85 women were randomized to the rescue antenatal steroids arm (44 women) or the placebo arm (41 women). A total of 113 infants were born to these women and were included in the study, 56 from the rescue antenatal steroids arm and 57 from the placebo arm (Figure 1;
Discussion
Our findings demonstrate improved Crs in the rescue antenatal steroids group that was sustained from delivery until discharge in infants randomized to a single rescue course of antenatal steroids vs placebo. At the time of hospital discharge (34-36 weeks of corrected gestational age), there was no significant difference in Crs between the rescue antenatal steroids and placebo groups.
In previous work, we showed that compared with placebo, rescue antenatal steroids improved Crs at birth by 20% in
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Repeat doses of prenatal corticosteroids for women at risk of preterm birth for improving neonatal health outcomes
2022, Cochrane Database of Systematic ReviewsRescue antenatal corticosteroids and neonatal outcomes in twin gestation
2022, Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal MedicineCytokines in preterm delivery: Proposal of a new diagnostic algorithm
2018, Journal of Immunology ResearchPulmonary function and outcomes in infants randomized to a rescue course of antenatal steroids
2017, Pediatric Pulmonology
Supported by National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences/National Institutes of Health (NIH; UL1TR000128), NIH/National Heart Lung Blood Institute (K23 HL080231 and R01 HL105447), Office of Dietary Supplement, and American Lung Association (to C.M.). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.