Increased airway resistance, airway hyperreactivity, and decreased lung compliance are characteristics of which condition?

• A. Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD)
• B. Pulmonary Hypoplasia
• C. Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS)
• D. Asthma

Answer: (A)

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia reflects chronic lung disease of prematurity where the airways undergo remodeling and inflammation. This leads to increased airway resistance as the small airways narrow and become inflamed and scarred. The inflammatory milieu also contributes to airway hyperreactivity, so the airways react more readily to stimuli. At the same time, the structural changes from fibrosis and arrested alveolar development reduce the overall lung compliance, making the lungs stiffer and more difficult to expand.

In contrast, Respiratory Distress Syndrome is primarily a surfactant deficiency causing acute, widespread atelectasis with low compliance but not the chronic hyperreactivity and remodeling seen in BPD. Pulmonary hypoplasia involves underdeveloped lungs with reduced lung volume and gas exchange but not the characteristic combination of increased resistance, hyperreactivity, and decreased compliance. Asthma does feature airway hyperreactivity and increased resistance, but static lung compliance is typically not decreased in the way seen with BPD, and asthma is not the classic neonatal chronic lung disease described here.

So the pattern of increased resistance, airway hyperreactivity, and decreased compliance most aligns with bronchopulmonary dysplasia.