Introduction:

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is the most common disease in preterm infants with very low birth weight.

Objective:

Establish lung function in children aged 6 to 12 years with a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in a high altitude city.

Methods:

A descriptive study was conducted in the EsSalud-Arequipa Network, including children with a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia between 2007-2012, with gestational age at birth of 28 to 32 weeks and of both sexes, which were compared in a 2:1 ratio with children without a history of respiratory affection attended in an outpatient pediatric consultation, and matched by age, sex and size. A spirometry was performed to find the forced vital capacity, expiratory volume in the first second, peak expiratory flow, meso-flows, the ratio of expiratory volume in the first second/ forced vital capacity and flows at 25, 50 and 75% of the forced vital capacity.

Results:

An incidence of 104 children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia was found in the period 2007-2012, and a work was perfomed with 18 children and their 36 respective controls. In the comparison of their results there was a significant difference (p<0.050) in the meso-flows and in all expiratory flows. In addition, after analyzing the ratio of expiratory volume in the first second / forced vital capacity, 4 cases with obstructive spirometric pattern were found.

Conclusions:

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia in a city located at 2335 meters above sea level has a tendency to cause, from the point of view of lung function, an obstructive spirometric pattern, especially at the level of the small airway.