A survey on retinopathy of prematurity of in vitro fertilization versus natural conception / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate whether the incidence and severity of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) differs between infants conceived naturally and those who were in vitro fertilization (IVF),and to analyze ROP-related factors,with a comparative case series.Methods This was a study on premature infants who required screening and treatment of ROP in the Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University,carried out between January 2008 and April 2012.One thousand and one hundred eighty three infants met the study criteria and were divided into two groupsnatural conception (group Ⅰ,1058 infants) and IVF (group Ⅱ,125 infants).Multiple variables were recorded,including birth weight (BW),gestational age (GA),number of births (NOB,singleton/twins/triplets),type of conception (natural conception/IVF),neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS),patent ductus arteriosus (PDA),neonatal asphyxia,neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NHB),intracranial hemorrhage (IH),congenital heart disease (CHD),neonatal anemia,neonatal sepsis,and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).The results of ophthalmological examinations were also recorded.The incidence of ROP between groups was compared with the Pearson Chi-square test.We applied Spearman correlation analysis to identify the variables that were most significantly associated with ROP.Results There were 138 infants of ROP in group Ⅰ (total 1058,13.0％),and 17 in group Ⅱ (total 125,13.6％),without significant difference in the presence of ROP between two groups (P ＞ 0.05).No significant difference was found in the presence of ROP affected by BW,GA,NOB,NRDS and other diseases between two groups (P ＞ 0.05).A significantly inverse association was found between ROP and BW (P ＜ 0.05),and between ROP and GA (P ＜ 0.05).No association was found between ROP and NOB (P ＞ 0.05).There was no significant difference in the presence of diseases between infants conceived naturally and those by IVF in group ROP (P ＞ 0.05).A significant association was found between ROP and NRDS (P ＜ 0.05).No association was found between ROP and diseases (PDA,neonatal asphyxia,NHB,IH,CHD,neonatal anemia,neonatal sepsis,and BPD).Conclusions Our study shows that IVF was not a risk factor for ROP.