Children's Lung Health

The primary goal of the Children’s Lung Health team is to help kids breathe better. The team aims to improve the diagnosis and management of lung disease from infancy to early adult life through the assessment of lung growth and development in health, and in a variety of lung diseases including asthma, cystic fibrosis, chronic lung disease of prematurity and neuromuscular diseases. Research within the Children’s Lung Health Team is centred around three main themes.

Examining childhood lung disease: The team seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of inflammation, infection and lung damage on lung function in early life. Research in this area involves the development and implementation of respiratory testing techniques that are suitable for use in infants and young children, and the detection of sensitive biological markers to identify disease progression. For example, the team is commencing a trial to examine how the exhaled breath of preterm children is different to term children and test how treatment with an inhaled anti-inflammatory medicine changes the lung disease in these preterm children. They also evaluate various measurements of respiratory function and their combined ability to detect and monitor the presence of lung disease in early life of Cystic Fibrosis patients. Similarly, in their Neuromuscular disease research, the team has developed a suite of less effort-dependent respiratory assessment tests for early detection of respiratory problems in this population. 

Tracking lung growth from infancy to early adulthood: Research in this area aims to maximise opportunities to prevent the development and/or improve the management of chronic lung disease in later life by tracking lung health from birth through childhood, adolescence and up to early adult life. This includes the assessment of the impact of neonatal factors like preterm birth, chronic lung disease of prematurity, low lung function and persistent respiratory symptoms, on long-term respiratory outcomes. Researchers in this team have tracked different cohorts of individuals over the years including the West Australian Lung Health in Preterm children (WALHIP) cohort to explore how lung problems of prematurity progresses through childhood and into early adult life; the 23-year respiratory follow-up of the Western Australian pregnancy cohort (Raine study) to identify factors that contribute to the persistence of childhood asthma; and are also part of the Australian Respiratory Early Surveillance Team for cystic fibrosis (AREST CF), a globally renowned cystic fibrosis cohort study.

Research translation: Central to the team’s research, is the expansion of the evidence base for international guidelines and the improvement of the clinical management of paediatric respiratory diseases. The team has established extensive collaborations with local, national and international stakeholders to ensure that the most relevant research questions are being asked and that the community is actively engaged in their research activities, to help facilitate rapid and effective implementation of research outcomes. The team also works closely with collaborators in the clinical environment e.g. respiratory and sleep department and the anaesthetics department at Perth Children’s Hospital for immediate translation of research outcomes into clinical practice. For example, research within this team has provided key insight into the long-term trajectories of the lung health of children born preterm and effected changes in the clinical management of premature neonates undergoing air travel. Further, the team is actively involved in the Global Lung Function Initiative to develop all ages, multi-ethnic lung function reference values and to integrate these into international clinical practice. Ongoing research includes close collaborations with the Aboriginal community to develop lung function reference ranges in Aboriginal Australians for better interpretation of lung function tests and diagnoses of lung disease in this population.