Prematurity, hypoplasia of the pulmonary vascular bed, and hypertension: fatal outcome in a ten-month-old infant.
The present report describes an infant weighing 610 g who did not develop respiratory distress at birth, but who failed to thrive, and died at 10 months of age with suprasystemic pulmonary hypertension of unknown cause. Morphometric analysis of the lung, including the pulmonary artery circulation and serial reconstruction of several arterial pathways, revealed hypoplastic arteries both for age and lung size, and also arterial dilatation lesions and interpulmonary artery anastomoses. Pulmonary hypertension of this degree, which is noncardiac in origin, has not been reported before in a premature infant within the first year of life.
D001158:Arteries / Q000002:abnormalities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000209:etiology*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases; D008168:Lung / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000098:blood supply*