Some neonatal risk factors for adult pulmonary arterial hypertension remain unknown.
AIM
Pulmonary hypertension has been linked to premature birth, chronic lung disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and congenital heart disease. This national population-based registry study assessed the risk of adult pulmonary hypertension following premature birth, adjusted for known risk factors.


METHODS
We focused on adults in the Swedish Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Registry, who were born prematurely, and controls randomly selected from the Swedish medical birth register and matched to each case by birth year and delivery hospital. Information on perinatal factors was also retrieved from the medical birth register. Conditional multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between premature birth and adult pulmonary hypertension, taking into account the potential confounding factors.


RESULTS
The study population comprised 427 adults born between 1973 and 1996, with 61 cases and 366 controls. Adult pulmonary hypertension was associated with premature birth, with an odds ratio of 3.08 and 95% confidence interval of 1.21-7.87. The association did not alter after adjusting for potential confounders.


CONCLUSION
By adjusting for factors linked to adult pulmonary hypertension, namely congenital heart defects, pulmonary diseases and premature birth, we were able to show that other unknown factors may influence the risk for pulmonary hypertension among adults who were born premature.
['Naumburg|Estelle|E|', 'Axelsson|Inge|I|', 'Huber|Daniel|D|', 'Söderström|Lars|L|']
D000328:Adult D005260:Female D006801:Humans D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary D007231:Infant, Newborn D008297:Male D047928:Premature Birth D018570:Risk Assessment D012307:Risk Factors D055815:Young Adult
Risk factors Pulmonary Hypertension Premature birth Chronic lung disease Brochopulmonary dysplasia