Abstract
Infants with extremely low birth weights (≤1000 g) have low plasma and tissue concentrations of vitamin A,
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–
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and vitamin A deficiency may predispose these infants to chronic lung disease.
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A meta-analysis
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of clinical trials of vitamin A supplementation for preterm infants
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–
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revealed a 17 percent increase in the rate of survival without chronic lung disease, which approached statistical significance. The current relevance of these trials is limited by changes in the vitamin A concentration in infant formulas and by the use of antenatal glucocorticoid and postnatal surfactant therapy. Moreover, in a pilot study
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we found that many infants . . .
