Tale of Two Patent Ductus Arteriosus Severity Scores: Similarities and Differences

Introduction: Several echocardiographic scoring systems have been developed to assess the severity of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) shunting in preterm infants.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the ability of two different scoring systems to evaluate the hemodynamic significance of the PDA and to predict long-term PDA-associated morbidities.

Subjects: El-Khuffash cohort (previously described) was derived from a multicenter, prospective, observational study conducted in tertiary neonatal intensive care units in Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

Results: A total of 141 infants with a mean gestational age of 26 ± 1.4 weeks and a mean birth weight of 952 ± 235 g were evaluated on day 2 of life. The two scores were well correlated with each other and both scores positively predicted chronic lung disease/death in this population.

Conclusion: There appears to be an overall stepwise progression in the incidence of poor outcome parameters from "closed" to "borderline" to "hemodynamically significant" PDA. Both the El-Khuffash and Shaare Zedek scores are predictive of PDA-associated morbidities.