Is respiratory distress syndrome hereditary?

Respiratory distress disorder is a disease that is quite harmful, especially for newborns. If respiratory distress occurs, the harm is quite great and it can easily lead to respiratory failure. Its mortality rate is relatively high. Generally speaking, respiratory distress disorder is not hereditary. If this happens, rescue should be carried out in time and good treatment should be given in time. Let's take a look at this aspect.

What is neonatal respiratory distress syndrome

Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, also known as neonatal hyaline membrane disease. It refers to symptoms such as progressive dyspnea and respiratory failure that occur in newborns shortly after birth. It is mainly caused by a lack of alveolar surfactant, which leads to progressive alveolar collapse. The child will experience progressive dyspnea, groaning, cyanosis, and inspiratory retractions within 4-12 hours after birth. In severe cases, respiratory failure occurs. The incidence rate is related to gestational age. The younger the gestational age, the higher the incidence rate, and the lighter the weight, the higher the mortality rate.

In addition, the incidence rate is also higher in babies born to diabetic mothers, babies delivered by caesarean section, the second baby of twins and male babies, multiple births, babies with intrauterine distress or asphyxia, and those with a genetic history.

Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome can be divided into broad and narrow meanings. The former refers to any respiratory distress symptoms regardless of the cause, and the latter refers to respiratory distress caused by lack of pulmonary surfactant.

Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome refers to the condition in which a newborn has a brief (minutes to hours) period of natural breathing after birth, followed by progressive dyspnea, cyanosis, groaning and other acute respiratory distress symptoms and respiratory failure. It is more common in premature babies, low birth weight babies or post-term babies. The main lesion is the formation of hyaline membrane in the lungs of affected children, so it is also called neonatal hyaline membrane disease.

Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome symptoms

Cause: It is mainly caused by the lack of alveolar surfactant, which leads to progressive collapse of alveoli.

Symptoms: Most of the affected infants are premature babies. Their cries may be normal when they are just born, but they will develop breathing difficulties within 6-12 hours, which will gradually worsen and be accompanied by groaning. Breathing is irregular with occasional apnea. The face becomes gray or bluish-gray due to lack of oxygen. After right-to-left shunting occurs, the cyanosis is obvious and cannot be alleviated by oxygen supply. People with severe hypoxia will suffer from low muscle tone in their limbs. Physical signs include flaring of the nostrils and a bulging chest cavity at first, followed by worsening atelectasis and a sinking chest cavity, which is more obvious in the armpits.

When inhaling, the soft tissue of the chest cavity sinks, which is most obvious below the rib margin and the lower end of the sternum. Lung breath sounds are reduced, and fine moist rales can be heard during inspiration. This disease is a self-limiting disease. Those who can survive for more than three days have increased lung maturity and a greater hope of recovery. However, many infants develop pneumonia, which causes their condition to worsen and only improves after the infection is controlled. Most seriously ill infants die within three days, with the highest mortality rate on the second day after birth.

Milder cases have a later onset, which may occur around 24-48 hours after birth. The breathing difficulties are not obvious, and the degree of skin cyanosis is relatively mild. The condition will improve within three or four days after treatment.

Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome is a self-limited disease. A self-limiting disease is one that recovers on its own, such as a cold. Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome is related to the degree of lung development. If the baby can survive for three days,

The lungs will continue to develop during these three days, and as they mature, the hope for recovery increases.