22 Aug 2025 • A large study of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants found that rapid early decline in fetal hemoglobin (HbF) strongly predicted bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).

Key Findings:

• Within the first 7 days, an absolute HbF drop >3 g/L or a decline rate >0.05 nearly tripled BPD risk (OR 2.77).
• Overall, 48.3% developed BPD and 1.7% died, with a nonlinear association between HbF decline and adverse outcomes.

These findings suggest that monitoring HbF kinetics in the early neonatal period may serve as a simple, predictive tool to identify high-risk preterm infants and enable timely preventive interventions against BPD.

Source: BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth | Read Full Story