Abstract
Purpose :
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) remains the dominant cause of severe visual impairment in childhood in North America and Europe. With the salient improvement in neonatal care since the 1980s, more and more very/extreme premature infants survived, whom now reach their adulthood. This study aimed to describe the visual function in a cohort of young adults who were born prematurely.
Methods :
This cross-sectional observational study compared visual function of young adults (18-29 years old) born prematurely (< 30 weeks of gestational age [GA]) versus full-term controls. Participants were categorized into three groups: preterm without ROP, preterm with ROP and term. Comprehensive ophthalmologic examination was performed with blinding to preterm and ROP status. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was assessed with a standardized linear Snellen chart and contrast sensitivity (CS) with the Vistech system. When analyzing BCVA, refractive errors and contrast sensitivities, we further grouped data based on the strong eyes (better BCVA) and the weak eyes (worse BCVA). Area-under-the-curve (AUC) analysis was performed to gauge the overall CS. Group comparisons were done using ANOVA.
Results :
In this study, 88 individuals born prematurely and 86 individuals born full-term were recruited. Among the strong eyes of the 3 groups, there was no significant difference for BCVA or refractive errors (see image). Among the weak eyes, the preterm with ROP group had the worst BCVA and refractive outcomes compared to the preterm without ROP and term groups. In the strong eyes, the CS AUC of the preterm with ROP group (16.22 ± 2.69; p<0.0001) was significantly lower than both the preterm without ROP (18.13 ± 2.01) and term (19.55 ± 2.48) groups. In the weak eyes, the AUC of the 3 groups showed a significant and progressive decline from the term group (18.9 ± 2.84) to the preterm without ROP group (18.29 ± 2.14), then to the preterm with ROP group (15.24 ± 2.21).
Conclusions :
In our cohort of young adults born preterm, prematurity alone did not affect their BCVA and refractive errors. However, ROP was independently associated with a lower BCVA, higher refractive errors and a reduced contrast sensitivity. Our data have shown, that prematurity and ROP have independent effects on contrast sensitivity. This study highlights the necessity of long-term ophthalmologic follow-ups for adults who were born prematurely.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.