Very Preterm Infants Failing CPAP Show Signs of Fatigue Immediately after Birth.

To investigate the differences in breathing pattern and effort in infants at birth who failed or succeeded on continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) during the first 48 hours after birth.Respiratory function recordings of 32 preterm infants were reviewed of which 15 infants with a gestational age of 28.6 (0.7) weeks failed CPAP and 17 infants with a GA of 30.1 (0.4) weeks did not fail CPAP. Frequency, duration and tidal volumes (VT) of expiratory holds (EHs), peak inspiratory flows, CPAP-level and FiO2-levels were analysed.EH incidence increased 9 ml/kg) with higher peak inspiratory flows than CPAP-fail infants (71.8 ± 15.8 vs. 15.5 ± 5.2 ml/kg.s, p