Multiparametric Prediction of the Risk of Moderate-severe Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in Neonates Born Before 30 Weeks of Gestation

INTRODUCTION: Current Neonatology has failed to reduce the incidence of moderate-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Although multiple models for predicting the risk of dysplasia in preterm infants have been studied, none have been implemented in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVE: To calculate a mathematical model to predict moderate-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia in newborns before 30 weeks of gestation based on pre and postnatal clinical variables, lung ultrasound images and detection of biomarkers in nasopharyngeal aspirate.

METHODOLOGY: Multicenter case-control study, in which 10 Spanish neonatal intensive care units (NICU) will participate. All participants will undergo a lung ultrasound in the first 24 hours, on the third day of life, at one week and two weeks of life, a nasopharyngeal aspirate at one week of life, and cardiac ultrasound at one week and two weeks of life. It is expected to include 240 patients in 29 months of study among all participating units: 200 for the calculation of the model, and 40 more for its subsequent validation. These will be divided between those with a diagnosis of moderate-severe BPD and those without, and the values of each of the variables described in the methodology section will be compared between the two groups. Those with a significant difference will be entered into a logistic regression model to calculate those that best predict the final diagnosis. With the results of the calculated model, a mobile application will be created with a risk of moderate-severe BPD calculator in this population, for its worldwide distribution.