The purpose of this study is to evaluate the growth of the lung and how easily gas can be taken up by the lung in healthy infants born at full term without any breathing problems and infants born prematurely.

Population

We are recruiting premature infants from Riley Hospial for Children, Methodist Hospital and IU NICu's. We also recruit from the Infant Lung Disease clinic at Riley Hospital for Children. Healhy full term infant are recruited through advertisements.

Brief Title

Growth of Airways and Lung Tissues in Premature and Healthy Infants

Official Title

Growth of Airways and Lung Parenchyma

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the growth of the lung and how easily gas can be<br /> taken up by the lung in healthy infants born at full term without any breathing problems and<br /> infants born prematurely.

Detailed Description

SPECIFIC AIM # 1: Determine the relationship between parenchymal tissue and alveolar volume
with normal lung growth early in life We hypothesize that during the first two years of life
that parenchymal surface area and alveolar volume increase with somatic growth; however, the
ratio of surface area to volume remains constant, while ventilation within the lung becomes
more homogenous.

SPECIFIC AIM # 2: Determine the pulmonary sequelae of premature birth and assess the
effectiveness of early treatment strategies upon the pulmonary sequelae.

We hypothesize that premature birth impedes growth and development of the lung parenchyma and
the airways at a corrected-age of 1-year. In addition, initiating continuous positive airway
pressure (CPAP) and a permissive ventilatory strategy in very premature infants at birth will
improve lung growth and lung function compared to treatment with early surfactant and
conventional ventilation.

Outcome Measures

Outcome measures are the tests that investigators perform to prove whether or not a treatment being tested in a clinical trial is having any effect.