Retinopathy of prematurity in Asian Indian babies weighing greater than 1250 grams at birth: ten year data from a tertiary care center in a developing country.

BACKGROUND: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an important cause of childhood blindness in developing countries. AIM: To report the spectrum of ROP and associated risk factors in babies weighing > 1250 g at birth in a developing country. SETTING AND DESIGN: Institutional, retrospective, non-randomized, observational clinical case series. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Retrospective analysis (10 years) of 275 eyes (138 babies) with ROP. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Qualitative data with the Chi-square test. Quantitative data using the unpaired t test or the ANOVA and further tested using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: The mean birth weight was 1533.9 g (range 1251 to 2750 g) and the mean period of gestation was 30.9 weeks (range 26 to 35). One hundred and twenty-four of 275 eyes (45.1%) had threshold or worse ROP. Risk factors for threshold or worse disease were, 'outborn babies' ( P P = 0.007) and exchange transfusion ( P = 0.003). The sensitivity of the American and British screening guidelines to pick up threshold or worse ROP in our study group was 82.4% and 77.4% respectively. CONCLUSIONS : Severe ROP is often encountered in babies weighing greater than 1250 g at birth in developing countries. Western screening guidelines may require modifications before application in developing countries.

Mutations of the Norrie gene in Korean ROP infants

The present study was conducted to evaluate if there is a Norrie disease gene (ND gene) mutation involved in the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), and to identify the possibility of a genetic abnormality that may be linked to the presence of ROP. Nineteen premature Korean infants, with a low birth weight (1500 g or less) or low gestational age (32 weeks or less), were included in the study. Eighteen infants had ROP, and the other did not. Genomic DNA was isolated from the peripheral blood leukocytes of these patients, and all three exons and their flanking areas, all known ND gene mutations regions, were evaluated following amplification by a polymerase chain reaction, but no ND gene mutations were detected. Any disagreement between the relationship of ROP to the ND gene mutation will need to be clarified by further investigation.