ABSTRACT
There are many risk factors contributing to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Some
are still controversial, including the use of glucocorticoid and intraventricular
hemorrhage. Hence, a retrospective study was performed to evaluate the association
between the suspected risk factors and ROP in a medical center in southern Taiwan.
One hundred fifty-nine infants with birth body weight < 1600 g admitted to our neonatal
intensive care unit before the 29th day of life were enrolled into this study. Clinical
data were analyzed by means of logistic regression. The prevalence of ROP in all infants
(birthweight < 1600 g) is 36.48% (58 of 159) and 59.46% (22 of 37) in extremely low
birthweight infants (birthweight ≤ 1000 g). One infant with gestational age 32 weeks
and birthweight 1420 g developed stage III ROP. Logistic regression revealed six factors
to be significant variables. Birthweight ≤ 1000 g, intraventricular hemorrhage, sepsis,
and use of glucocorticoid or dopamine were risk factors associated with higher incidence
of ROP. Supplementation of vitamin E was shown to relate to lower incidence of ROP.
This study confirms several risk factors recognized in previous statistical analyses.
Sepsis is the most significant factor contributing to ROP. Vitamin E was proven to
be effective in prophylaxis of development of ROP. The possibility of development
of ROP could not be excluded in infants with gestational age > 32 weeks.
KEYWORDS
Retinopathy of prematurity - extremely low birthweight - sepsis
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Mei-Yung ChungM.D.
Department of Pediatrics, Chang Gung Children's Hospital
123, Ta Pei Road, Niao Sung Hsiang, Kaohsiung Hsien 833
Taiwan, Republic of China
