Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys. Doors for this event will open on 16.45 (BST), with the lectures to commence at 16.50. A drinks reception will be held at 17.30 immediately after the lecture.

Professor Theodore Dassios

Neonatology: Three short stories and a common myth

Abstract

Health outcomes and respiratory disease in childhood can be determined by genetic conditions, premature birth and indices of socioeconomic deprivation. Respiratory muscle function is compromised in children and young adults with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) compared to healthy controls, through the effect of airway obstruction and impaired nutrition on the respiratory muscles. Regular aerobic exercise can have a protective moderating action on the respiratory muscles in CF. Extremely preterm-born infants develop a form of chronic respiratory disease, characterised by arrested alveolar growth. This disease can be predicted and non-invasively evaluated with paired measurements of transcutaneous oxygen saturations and fraction of inspired oxygen. Poor socioeconomic standing in metropolitan urban areas can be associated with unfavourable neonatal outcomes, including premature birth and a higher risk for mortality before discharge from neonatal care.

Biography

Professor Theodore Dassios is a Neonatal Intensivist and an Adjunct Professor of Neonatology at King’s College London. He is the current elected Chair of the Pulmonology Section of the European Society of Paediatric Research. He has held the position of the Course Director for the MSc in Advanced Paediatrics at King’s College London, the Royal College Tutor for the Neonatal Unit at King’s College Hospital and the Chair of the Group “Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care” of the European Respiratory Society. He undertook his clinical neonatal training at King’s, Greece and Cambridge. He is currently supervising three MD(Res) degrees at KCL. His research interests include the quantification of oxygenation impairment in neonatal lung disease, the study of neonatal respiratory muscle function and the use of capnography in neonatal mechanical ventilation.