Abstract
Purpose :
There are no microvascular analysis reports beyond the macula with optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in children with a history of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). We performed an observational prospective cross-sectional study to determine the microvascular changes in children with a history of ROP and a control group using OCTA with 12 x 12 mm images.
Methods :
We included 33 eyes of 33 patients with a history of ROP 1-3 between ages 3-17; 10 eyes of 10 age-matched full-term children with a gestational age above 37 weeks served as a healthy control group. A 12 x 12 mm volumetric flow scan centered on the fovea using swept-source OCTA (SS-OCTA) was selected for all patients. The vessel density (vascular density [VD] and vascular length density [VLD]) and fractal dimension (FD) were evaluated for the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP); the vascular flow area (VFA) was evaluated for the outer retina choriocapillaris (CC). Images were analyzed using the program Fiji 1.50.
Pearson correlation analysis was performed to identify the relationships between SCP, DCP and CC plexus with variable factors. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare vascular metrics of the control and ROP group.
Results :
No statistically significant differences were found in the VD, VLD, FD and VFA between the ROP and control group (VD of the SCP and DCP p=0.788 and p=0.313 respectively; VLD of the SCP and DCP p=0.832 and p=0.356 respectively; FD of the SCP and DCP p=0.661 and p=0.745 respectively; VFA of the CC p=0.542). We found some positive correlations (age with VD of the SCP and VLD of the SCP, and APGAR score at 1 minute and VLD of the DCP [r= 0.462, p=0.01; r=0.386, p=0.01; r=0.422, p=0.01] respectively and VFA with APGAR score at 5 minutes [r=0.412, p=0.01]) and some negative correlations (APGAR score at 1 and 5 minutes with VD of the SCP and VLD of the SCP (r=-0.513, p=0.01, r=-0.450, p=0.01; r=-0.399, p=0.01, r=-0.446, p=0.01).
Conclusions :
We did not find any statistically significant differences between the ROP group and the control group; the positive and negative correlations could serve as predictors of vascular changes in the ROP group. Further studies using OCTA in patients with a history of ROP are required to better understand the microvascular changes in these patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.