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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Neonatology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1582881
This article is part of the Research Topic Care of the extremely preterm infant View all 8 articles
Early low-dose hydrocortisone is associated with a reduced risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infants born at less than 26 weeks' gestational age
Provisionally accepted- 1 Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Shenzhen, China
- 2 Department of Pediatrics, Seventh Medical Center of The Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
Objective: To determine whether administering low-dose hydrocortisone early in treatment reduces the risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in infants born before 26 weeks of gestation Study Design: This retrospective case-control study compared the incidence of Grade II + BPD between infants who received hydrocortisone treatment and those who did not. Propensity score matching was used to ensure comparability between the groups, with a 1:1 match ratio based on gestational age and birth weight.Results: A total of 66 infants were included in the study. Those who received early low-dose hydrocortisone demonstrated a significantly lower risk of Grade II + BPD incidence(p = 0.024).Additionally, early administration of low-dose hydrocortisone was associated with a shorter duration of non-invasive ventilation days (p = 0.038). Multiple logistic regression analysis confirmed that hydrocortisone treatment was independently associated with a reduced risk of Grade II+ BPD incidence (OR: 0.287, 95% CI: 0.084-0.980).These findings suggest that early administration of low-dose hydrocortisone is associated with a reduced risk of Grade II + BPD incidence in extremely preterm infants born before 26 weeks of gestation.
Keywords: Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia, Hydrocortisone, preterm infants, Gestation age, Birth Weight
Received: 25 Feb 2025; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yao, Huang, Chen, Yang, Li and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fang Yao, Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Shenzhen, China
Qiuping Li, Department of Pediatrics, Seventh Medical Center of The Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
Bingchun Lin, Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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