For babies born very prematurely, just surviving may not be the only hurdle.
A University researcher found that babies born very prematurely may have lifelong chronic lung problems. Andy Lovering, an assistant professor of human physiology, says more research needs to be done to help premature babies, and he hopes to conduct some of that research at the University.
At the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Lovering helped conduct a study as a postdoctoral fellow. In the study, he discovered about 30 percent of babies born very prematurely suffer from lung problems later in life. The study was published in the journal High Altitude Medicine and Biology this year.
Lovering and his colleagues were studying the reasons why some people suffer from high altitude related illnesses, including High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. At high altitudes, water accumulates in the lungs of those who

suffer from HAPE, and doesn’t let enough oxygen into their lungs, Lovering said. This makes sufferers feel as if they can’t breathe, and is a problem which can result in death.
“It’s not really understood why some people have it, and others don’t,” Lovering said.
During the study, researchers found a 27-year-old who appeared as if he was having an asthma attack during an exercise. He didn’t, however, suffer from any asthma problems.
“I thought he for sure had asthma or there was something wrong with our machines, but we eventually decided he had lung problems,” Lovering said, adding the man had suffered from a previous bout of HAPE.
The researchers discovered the man was born 32 or 33 weeks early and weighed about 3 pounds, 8 ounces at birth, Lovering said. The subject’s present lung function compares to that of a 50-year-old.
“At age 50 or 60, this individual will have very poor lung function and will have to have bottled oxygen,” Lovering said.
Babies born too soon are also more susceptible to developing Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia, a condition that can cause troubled breathing or chest pain, Lovering said.
“The problem with being born this premature is that the last thing to develop is the lungs because you don’t need them in the uterus,” he said.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia was first diagnosed in the 1960s and early 1970s.
“At that time they were just beginning to be able to keep people born that early alive,” Lovering said. “More than 30 years ago, these individuals born that early would have died.”
More studies need to be done to investigate the long-term health of babies born very prematurely, Lovering said.
“We want to try and understand how to rehabilitate these patients early on in life so that they can maybe have better long-term outcomes,” Lovering said. “The lung stops developing around age six or eight, so you’d have to start really early on.”
He said possible treatments could include physical training and exercise, along with breathing exercises.
Gary Klug, head of the human physiology department, said he hopes professors such as Lovering can make further links between different realms of science.
“We want people who can communicate basic science into the clinics in hopes that it shortens the time to get new discoveries into clinical science,” Klug said.