Fore Hadley & U of Texas Health Science Center

Summarized Findings:

All kids with CDH are supported on a breathing machine. How to best use that breathing machine so that we help the lungs without hurting the lungs in CDH remains understudied. With the funds from Fore Hadley, we sought to better understand the actual size (volume) of CDH lungs so that we can learn about the best settings for the breathing machine. We used information from a CDH model, as well as information from actual CDH patients. Not surprisingly, we confirmed that the ability of CDH lungs to provide oxygen to the body is decreased compared to normal lungs. The most important and novel finding of the study was that we identified specific differences in breathing machine breath size that correlated with the size of the hole in the diaphragm muscle. This was seen in the model and in actual patients! Therefore, we now have better information to guide ventilator use on, and further research for, infants born with CDH. As a testament to the quality of, and interest in, this work, it was presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics, one of the most prestigious pediatric meetings, and it was published in Pediatric Pulmonology, a leading journal focused on kid lungs.