1 Department of Pediatrics, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, 114 Woodland St, Hartford, CT 06105
2 Division of Neonatology, TB 193, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
To the Editor.
The paper by Avery et al,1 further demonstrates the potential usefulness of corticosteroids in chronic lung disease of prematurity. However, initial reports in 1974 and 1975 met with criticism for the use of potentially toxic drugs in premature infants.2,3
In 1983 we retrospectively reviewed 23 infants with chronic lung disease of prematurity who received corticosteroids and identified distinct differences between responders and nonresponders which suggested different types of lung disease.4 Our responders all showed a greater than 30% decrease in AaPo2 by day 6 and showed maximal response by ten days of therapy.