Lung ultrasound during the initiation of breathing in healthy term and late preterm infants immediately after birth, a prospective, observational study

Abstract

Introduction Lung ultrasound (LUS) has shown promise for evaluation of newborns with respiratory distress. However, no study has described the appearance of LUS during the initiation of breathing. We used LUS to describe the appearance of the lungs in healthy infants immediately after birth, starting with the infant's first breath, through the first 20 min after birth. Methods This was a single-center observational study enrolling neonates born at ≥35 weeks. We obtained LUS video recordings with the initiation of breathing. Recordings that captured one of the 1st four breaths after birth were included. We also obtained recordings at 1–10 and 11–20 min after birth. Recordings were graded usin..