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. 2025 Oct:209:106342.
doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2025.106342. Epub 2025 Jul 15.

The effectiveness of pulmonary hypertension screening in infants born preterm

Stephanie Vachon  1 , Rajiv Devanagondi  2 , Andrew Dylag  3 , Hongyue Wang  3 , Gloria Pryhuber  3
Affiliations

The effectiveness of pulmonary hypertension screening in infants born preterm

Stephanie Vachon et al. Early Hum Dev. 2025 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: To determine if pulmonary hypertension (PH) screening in at-risk infants born preterm reduces morbidity and/or NICU length of stay.

Study design: This single-center retrospective cohort chart review compared infants born <32 weeks gestational age (GA) before and after the implementation of an updated PH screening guideline. Screening eligibility and PH diagnosis were determined by applying the standardized criteria to patients in both epochs. NICU and post-discharge outcomes were determined by chart review.

Results: Pre- (N = 513) and post-screening (N = 544) epochs had similar gestational age and demographic characteristics. More echocardiograms were obtained in post-screening infants resulting in more PH diagnoses (11.5 % vs. 16.5 %, p = 0.02) at a younger median post-natal age [day of life 73 (28-193) vs. 55 (28-212), median and range, p = 0.01]. PH+ infants in the post-screen epoch were discharged at a younger median post-natal age [127 (49-407) vs 113.5 (46-433) days, p = 0.02] and corrected GA [43.6 (36.7-87.4) vs 41.7 (36.6-64.9) weeks, p = 0.03].

Conclusion: PH screening protocol with multidisciplinary team involvement may be associated with increased detection of PH in at risk infants yet a shorter NICU stay in infants with PH.

Keywords: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia; Extremely preterm infants; Neonatology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest No authors have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

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