Abstract
Purpose :
This study’s goal is to compare the retinal vascular morphology of newborns small for gestational age (SGA) and of newborns appropriate for gestational age (AGA), and to evaluate if the weight at birth related to gestational age has any influence on the retinal angiogenesis.
Methods :
Digital photographs of ocular fundus were obtained from 42 full term newborns using the RetCam Shuttle®. The newborns were divided into two groups according to their weight: SGA and AGA. A digital analysis of the photographs was made, and four indexes were calculated: venous length index, arteriole length index, number of venous branching points and number of arteriole branching points (fig 1).
Results :
The AGA group had a median birth weight of 3.189g (n = 21). The SGA group had a median birth weight of 2.600g (n = 21). The SGA group had a smaller venous index (1,089 ± 0,083) in comparison with the AGA group (1,102 ±0,084), p = 0,0026 and α = 5%, as well as a smaller arteriole index (1,061 ±0,063) compared to the AGA group (1,091 ±0,090), p = 0,0001 and α = 5% (figs 2 and 3). In addition, the SGA group had a smaller number of venous and arteriole branching points compared to the AGA group.
Conclusions :
The retinal vascular morphology of SGA full-term newborns was abnormal when compared to AGA full term newborns, which demonstrates the influence of the weight at birth related to gestational age in the retinal angiogenesis.There are not described studies relating birth weight and gestational age infants at term, without comorbidity, with retinal angiogenesis. The importance of this study, then, it is to demonstrate to ophthalmologic and pediatric class that newborns at term, classified as SGA's, have a risk factor determining an abnormal retinal angiogenesis, in isolation.
Therefore, further studies should be made in such line of research to evaluate the evolution of these findings.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.