Objective: Evaluate the association between results of the room air (RA) challenge and death, respiratory morbidity, and neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) at 2 years' corrected age.
Study design: Cohort study of infants born <27 weeks' gestational age who underwent a RA challenge to determine BPD diagnosis at 36 weeks postmenstrual age.
Results: Of 1022 infants eligible for the RA challenge, 554 underwent testing and 223 passed. Test result was not associated with death or serious respiratory morbidities [adjusted relative risk (aRR) 1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65-1.56] or death or moderate/severe NDI (aRR 1.06, 95% CI 0.81-1.39) at 2 years.
Conclusion: Results of the RA challenge were not associated with differences in respiratory or neurodevelopmental morbidity at 2 years, suggesting the RA challenge does not add prognostic value in contemporary extremely preterm infants.
Gov id: Generic Database: NCT00063063.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.