Chronic bronchopulmonary diseases in children: developmental characteristics and clinical course

This lecture summarises long-term clinical observations of children with various forms of chronic non-specific lung diseases (CNLD), which have enabled the author to formulate a concept of dysontogenetic disorders of the bronchopulmonary system arising at both prenatal and postnatal levels. Such disorders develop through biochemical, molecular and cellular changes triggered by a combination of exogenous and endogenous damaging factors – nutrient and essential-trace-element deficiency or imbalance, intrauterine viral infection and environmental exposures – that programme physiological and metabolic reactions from the earliest stages of bronchopulmonary organogenesis through to adult life. This approach opens up possibilities for a scientifically grounded primary prevention of dysontogenetically determined pulmonary pathology in children. The author presents a differential diagnostic algorithm for analyzing recurrent and chronic bronchopulmonary pathology.