Breast milk enhances cardiac performance over first year in preterm babies: JAMA
The study provides the first evidence of an association between early postnatal nutrition in preterm-born infants and heart function over the first year of age.
USA: A recent study has found that preterm infants who consumed their mother's breast milk had an enhanced cardiac performance at age 1 year. The study is published in JAMA Network Open.
The study involved 80 preterm infants and is the first of its kind to show that preterm infants with higher exposure to their mother's own milk had better cardiovascular health and early cardiovascular development, with values approaching those of healthy full-term infants.
The research was led by Professor Afif EL-Khuffash, Clinical Professor of Paediatrics at RCSI and Consultant Neonatologist at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, in collaboration with researchers at University of Oxford; Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Washington University School of Medicine; and, Harvard Medical School.
Children and adults who are born preterm are at increased risk of cardiovascular disorders, including ischemic heart disease, heart failure, systemic and pulmonary hypertension, and are more likely to die as a result of cardiovascular disease. The hearts of young people born early are known to have unique traits such as reduced biventricular volume, shorter length, lower systolic and diastolic function and a disproportionate increase in muscle mass. This results in impaired heart function, which is significantly lower than that of healthy infants who are born at term. This dysfunction is detectable at hospital discharge and persists throughout their adolescence.
DOI: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2783546
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