Gestational age influences the early microarchitectural changes in response to mechanical ventilation in the preterm lamb lung

Abstract

Background: Preterm birth is associated with abnormal lung architecture, and a reduction in pulmonary function related to the degree of prematurity. A thorough understanding of the impact of gestational age on lung microarchitecture requires reproducible quantitative analysis of lung structure abnormalities. The objectives of this study were (1) to use quantitative histological software (ImageJ) to map morphological patterns of injury resultant from delivery of an identical ventilation strategy to the lung at varying gestational ages and (2) to identify associations between gestational age-specific morphological alterations and key functional outcomes. Method: Lung morphology was compared af..