Center for Infant Pulmonary Disorders

The Center for Infant Pulmonary Disorders (CIPD) exists to reduce pain and improve the quality of life for preterm and full-term infants who are born with or develop pulmonary disorders. We focus on translational early phase and pivotal clinical trials, as well as post clinical trial surveillance, in our multifaceted approach to addressing this medical and public health problem.

Our program specializes in early stage clinical research for a critically ill and understudied population of infants and toddlers. It combines the expertise of physicians trained in developmental pharmacology with that of specialists in pulmonary and long term developmental follow up.

Support for this Center sustains its dedicated database and biorepository infrastructure, which enables local research along with international efforts through the BPD Collaborative to develop safe and effective patient treatments, and to improve quality of life outcomes.

About Chronic Pulmonary Disorders

Chronic pulmonary disorders that arise at birth or in the first days of postnatal life remain among the most important challenges in pediatric medicine. For example, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common and significant pediatric pulmonary disorder in the United States. Severe BPD develops in approximately 10,000 to 13,000 infants annually and may impair lung health throughout childhood and sometimes, throughout the person’s life. In addition to BPD in very preterm infants, other chronic pulmonary disorders plague certain preterm and full-term infants, adding to the overall public health burden.

Financial support for the CIPD

Endowments

Cooper Connor Endowed Fund for Pulmonary Research

Sosland Family Endowed Chair in Neonatal Research

Others sources of support

Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust

Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Unique research

The CIPD operates two IRB-approved repositories at Children’s Mercy. Investigators affiliated with Children’s Mercy and their collaborators may utilize these research assets to study infant pulmonary disorders.

Infant Pulmonary Data Repository

This repository banks clinical data from pulmonary patients admitted to Children’s Mercy during the first year of life and follows their outcomes until adulthood.

Infant Pulmonary Biorepository

This repository prospectively banks blood, urine, tracheal aspirates, and buccal swabs longitudinally from infant pulmonary patients admitted to Children’s Mercy.

Clinical connections

Chronic Lung Disease team

The CIPD helps support the multidisciplinary Chronic Lung Disease team, which serves infants with complex lung and chronic airway problems.

Tracheostomy and Home Ventilator Program

CIPD physicians lead the tracheostomy and home ventilator outpatient clinic, which follows patients discharged from a Children’s Mercy NICU or PICU and continue to receive respiratory support.

Multicenter relationships

BPD Collaborative

The CIPD is a founding member of the BPD Collaborative established to fill knowledge gaps in the treatment of infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Nearly 20 medical sites from the United States and Europe are focusing their research collaboration on long-term pulmonary support for critically ill infants.

Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium

The CIPD participates in the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC), especially its BPD and Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) Forums. This consortium strives to improve care for high-risk infants by providing a platform to compare quality care and outcomes across Level IV neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

Affiliated Faculty

William E. Truog, MD Neonatology

Director of the Center for Infant Pulmonary Disorders; Director of Clinical Research for the Division of Neonatology

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

Meet Dr. Truog

Michael F. Nyp, DO, MBA Neonatology

Director of the Infant Pulmonary Biorepository and Co-Director of the Infant Pulmonary Data Repository, Assistant Director of the Donald Thibeault Neonatal Research Laboratory, Resident Research Committee Chair, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

Meet Dr. Nyp

Winston M. Manimtim, MD Neonatology

Director of the Infant Tracheostomy and Home Ventilator Program

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

Meet Dr. Manimtim

Research highlights from the CIPD

Precision Therapeutics

With support from the CIPD, ongoing steroid response studies use pharmacogenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and phenotype associations to optimize medical treatments with improved clinical outcomes in preterm infants with BPD. In a 2018 edition of Pediatric Research, Tamorah Lewis published, “Genetic variation in CRHR1 is associated with short-term respiratory response to corticosteroids in preterm infants at risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia”. In a 2018 edition of Pediatric Pulmonology, Alain Cuna published, “Timing of postnatal corticosteroid treatment for bronchopulmonary dysplasia and its effect on outcomes.”

BPD Collaborative

CIPD faculty participate in six working groups dedicated to specialized aspects of BPD diagnosis and/or treatment. Dr. Truog chairs the pharmacology group, while others also study nutrition, ventilator strategies including Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist (NAVA), pulmonary hypertension, epidemiology, and outpatient transition. In an ongoing effort to establish an international research data repository, the CIPD provides local data to facilitate collaborative BPD research and innovation. Publications supported by the BPD Collaborative include: “Point Prevalence Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Variation for Infants with Severe BPD”, Am. J. Perinat 2015, which demonstrated great variability among the then 8 centers in pharmacological treatment of infants with severe BPD. A second publication, “Inter disciplinary Care of Children with severe BPD (J. Pediatr 2017, 81:12-28), provides expert opinion on a variety of issues about BPD and identifies knowledge gaps in treatment options for these infants.