The importance of echocardiography in the instrumental diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension in children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Abstract

Early detection of such a formidable complication of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) as pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an urgent problem in pediatrics. Echocardiography is currently recognized as the most accessible and non-invasive method for determining pressure in the pulmonary artery. Disorders of alveogenesis and angiogenesis of the vessels of the small circulatory circle in premature infants forming BPD require careful echocardiographic control with using additional analysis of changes in the systolic eccentricity index (EI) as a reliable marker of PH in BPD infants. To increase the information content, it is also necessary to expand the use of EchoCG data in combination with analysis of the blood content of B type natriuretic peptide or the N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide.