Purpose:
To determine the incidence and risk factors, if any, contribute to the development of threshold disease in premature infants at high risk for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in an urban medical center in the Bronx.
Methods:
All infants (n=312) in the neonatal intensive care unit that were referred for ophthalmologic evaluation were evaluated by two retinal surgeons from January 2001 to November 2009. Data was collected retrospectively from the examination of log books, paper charts and electronic medical records. Any infant with a birth weight equal to, or less than 1500 grams and/or was born 28 weeks, or less premature was included in this study.
Results:
The mean birth weight was 964 g and the mean gestational age was approximately 27 weeks. 211 infants (68%) were found to have some stage of ROP in at least 1 eye on at least 1 occasion. 131 (42%) infants were born to mothers with Hispanic surnames. Table 1 presents the incidence of ROP for various subgroups. The cumulative incidence of plus disease was 11.5%. A total of 37 (11.9%) infants developed prethreshold/threshold disease requiring laser photocoagualation. The mean birth weight and gestational age of infants who developed threshold disease was 698 g and 25 weeks, respectively. The mean birth weight and gestational age of infants who did not develop threshold disease was 984 g and 28 weeks, respectively.
Conclusions:
This study shows the baseline characteristics, incidence and risk factors of retinopathy in a unique patient population in an urban medical center in the Bronx. The results were very consistent with the findings of the CRYO-ROP study. As expected, ROP incidence and severity were higher in lower birth weight and gestational age categories. In addition, Hispanic infants appeared more susceptible to ROP than non-Hispanic infants. These results include the current incidence of various severity stages of ROP found in the Bronx and provide new insight into the development of ROP.
Keywords: retinopathy of prematurity • retinal development • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment