Ocular Blood Flow Changes in Retinopathy of Prematurity With Plus Disease as Measured by Color Doppler Imaging

Abstract

Purpose:: To evaluate the changes in ocular blood flow as measured by color Doppler imaging (CDI) in preterm infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) before and after development of plus disease.

Methods:: Sixteen high risk preterm infants with birth mean weight of 675.7 grams with a mean baseline gestational age of 174.6 + 8.98 days underwent blood flow measurements with CDI. Measurements focused on the ophthalmic artery (OA) and the central retinal artery (CRA) at baseline and at the time of first plus disease occurrence. Measured parameters were peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV) and resistive index (RI). Differences between both measurements were statistically evaluated by student-t-tests.

Results:: Analysis showed significant differences between baseline and time point of plus disease occurrence for the left eye CRA PSV (p=0.05) and left eye OA RI (p=0.05). Of the 16 infants examined in this study, there were no additional significant differences for all other examined parameters.

Conclusions:: These findings suggest that CDI indicates possible higher vascular resistance to blood flow in the retrobulbar blood vessels of premature infants with ROP and plus disease.

Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • retinal development • optic flow