Abstract
Introduction: :
Background: Association of maternal factors with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) has not been extensively studied, and the few available data are inconclusive until now.Objective: This study aims to investigate maternal and perinatal risk factors for ROP among very low birth weight neonates.
Methods: :
An institutional prospective cohort study was conducted from 2002 to 2009 including maternal data and also postnatal variables from preterm neonates with birth weight (BW)≤1,500 g and gestational age (GA)≤32 weeks in southern Brazil. Main outcomes were the occurrences of any stage and severe ROP. The considered maternal variables were: the age, number of prenatal attendances, hours since membrane rupture, use of antenatal steroids, occurrences of preeclampsia and essential hypertension, mode of delivery and prior preterm birth. The collected postnatal variables were: the BW, GA, gender, gemelarity, Apgar index at 5th minute, use of oxygentherapy by nasal CPAP or mechanical ventilation, use of erythropoietin, indomethacin and surfactant, needing of blood transfusions, occurrences of sepsis, meningitis, persistent ductus arteriosus, any grade intraventricular haemorrhage, and being small for GA. Student’s-t test, chi-square and non-parametric tests were used to compare non-ROP and ROP patients. Those significantly associated with ROP (p<0.05) were entered into a logistic regression model.
Results: :
A total of 324 neonates and 294 mothers were included. A total of 103 babies (29.9%) achieved any stage ROP while only 24 (7.4%) displayed severe ROP. After univariate and multivariate analysis only maternal preeclampsia (OR:0.182) and BW (OR:0.997) showed significance for severe ROP.
Conclusions: :
The occurrence of preeclampsia among mothers was inversely related to the development of any stage or severe ROP in theirs infants.Keywords Prematurity, very low birth weight, preterm infant, retinopathy of prematurity, risk factors, maternal risk factors, preeclampsia
Keywords: retinopathy of prematurity • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment