Journal Article

The retinal vascular growth rate in babies with retinopathy of prematurity could indicate treatment need

Padhi, Tapas Ranjan, Padhy, Srikanta Kumar, Kelgaonker, Anup, Khalsa, Ashish, Bhusal, Utpal, Patel, Anamika, Devi, Sabita, Das, Taraprasad, Shah, Miloni, Samantaray, Balakrushna, Kapil, Vidushi, Jalali, Subhadra, Sugumar, Shalini, Ali, Mohammad Hasnat

2022

Overview

Purpose: To analyze the weekly rate of retinal vascular growth in treatment-naïve babies with various stages of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and validate if this could be a predictor of treatment need. Methods: Retrospective review of medical charts and retinal images of babies with various stages of ROP. The images were enhanced using red-green image enhancement software. Using the length of the horizontal disc diameter (DD) of each eye, the vessel growth was measured from the disc margin up to the vessel tip in fixed quadrants. The rate of vessel growth was the ratio of vessel length to the number of weeks it took to reach this length. The babies were divided into treatment warranting ROP (group 1), low-risk pre-threshold (type II) ROP (group 2,), and no-ROP (group 3) for analysis. The \"no-ROP\" group acted as normal control. Group 1 was further subdivided into 1A (threshold ROP), IB (aggressive posterior ROP), 1C (hybrid ROP), and ID (high-risk pre-threshold ROP). Results: Out of 436 eyes, groups 1, 2, and 3 had 238, 108, and 90 eyes, respectively. The mean rate of vascular outgrowth along with 95% confidence interval (CI) was 0.490 [0.487,0.520], 0.612 [0.599, 0.638], and 0.719 [0.703, 0.740] DD/week, respectively, for babies with \"treatment warranting,\" \"low risk pre-threshold\" and \"no ROP\" groups, respectively. In our estimate, more than 80% of eyes with a vessel growth rate of 0.54 DD/week or less required treatment Conclusion: A rate of retinal vascular growth less than 0.54 DD/week can be used to determine treatment requirements in babies with ROP.

• Publisher: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd,Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd,Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd,Wolters Kluwer - Medknow,Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subject: Angiogenesis Inhibitors - therapeutic use / Bevacizumab - therapeutic use / Blood-vessels / Care and treatment / Diagnosis / Eye / Gestational Age / Growth rate / Horizontal cells / Humans / Infant / Infant, Newborn / intravitreal bevacizumab / Intravitreal Injections / Monoclonal antibodies / Pediatric research / Retina / retinal vascular growth / Retinopathy / retinopathy of prematurity / Retinopathy of Prematurity - therapy / Retrolental fibroplasia / Retrospective Studies / Special Focus, Retina, Original / Special Focus, Retina, Original Article / treatment / Vision disorders in children