Anatomical and refractive outcomes in patients with treated retinopathy of prematurity. / Resultados anatómicos y refractivos en pacientes tratados por retinopatía del prematuro.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the anatomical and refractive outcomes after treatment with intravitreal bevacizumab or laser in a patient cohort with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). METHODS: A multicentre, prospective, and observational study was performed on patients with ROP treated at Hospital Roberto del Río. Those patients with less than 6months of follow-up were excluded. Cases with posterior zone II, zone I ROP, and aggressive posterior ROP (AP-ROP) were treated with intravitreal bevacizumab. All other patients were treated with laser. Follow-up was performed every 3 months, and included fondo evaluation, refraction, and Teller tests. RESULTS: The treated group included 144 eyes of 72 patients, of whom 49 were treated with laser and 23 with intravitreal bevacizumab. One (1.4%) patient from the laser group progressed to stage 4b retinal detachment and required bilateral vitrectomy. Of the remainder, 45 cases had type 1 ROP, 16 had threshold disease, and 11 had AP-ROP. The median of gestational age was 26 weeks (range 23-30), and median of birth weight was 800g (range 405-1350). Median follow-up was 10 months (range 6-8). The Teller test median was 3.2 cycles/cm (range 0.32-13). There were 16 (22%) cases with a myopic refraction of -6 D or more. The sphere median was -1.75 D (range -16.00 to +3.50 D) and the cylindrical median was 0.00 (range -4.5 to +1.5 D). Anatomical success was achieved in 71 (98.6%) of patients. CONCLUSION: Treatment with laser or intravitreal bevacizumab is a highly successful primary treatment for ROP. Anatomical success can be achieved in most cases. Treated patients develop frequent and severe refractive defects, which should be corrected. Vision outcome, measured using the Teller preferential test, shows good results.

[Telemedicine correlation in retinopathy of prematurity between experts and non-expert observers]. / Correlación en telemedicina de retinopatía del prematuro entre observadores expertos y no expertos.

OBJECTIVE: To study the correlation between expert and non-expert observers in the reporting images for the diagnosis of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in a telemedicine setting. METHODS: A cross-sectional, multicenter study, consisting of 25 sets of images of patients screened for ROP. They were evaluated by two experts in ROP and 1 non-expert and classified according to telemedicine classification, zone, stage, plus disease and Ells referral criteria. The telemedicine classification was: no ROP, mild ROP, type 2 ROP, or ROP that requires treatment. Ells referral criteria is defined as the presence at least one of the following: ROP in zone I, Stage 3 in zone I or II, or plus+ For statistical analysis, SPSS 16.0 was used. For correlation, Kappa value was performed. RESULTS: There was a high correlation between observers for the assessment of ROP stage (0.75; 0.54-0.88) plus disease (0.85; 0.71-0.92), and Ells criteria (0.89; 0.83-1.0). However, inter-observer values were low for zone (0.41; 0.27-0.54) and telemedicine classification (0.43; 0.33-0.6). CONCLUSIONS: When evaluating telemedicine images by examiners with different levels of expertise in ROP, the Ells criteria gave the best correlation. In addition, stage of disease and plus disease have good correlation among observers. In contrast, the correlation between observers was low for zone and telemedicine classification.

Effect of hemiplegia on skeletal maturation.

Children with cerebral palsy have been reported to have poor growth and delayed skeletal maturation, but it is unclear whether these effects are related to the underlying brain injury or to concomitant malnutrition. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of hemiplegic cerebral palsy on skeletal maturation and growth, with the unaffected side used as each subject's control. Bilateral hand-wrist radiographs were obtained for 19 children with spastic hemiplegia. Skeletal maturation was determined in a blinded fashion with the Fels method. The skeletal age of the affected (hemiplegic) side was less than that of the unaffected (control) side in all 19 subjects; the mean difference in skeletal age was 7.3 months (p < 0.001). The delay in skeletal maturation of the affected side correlated linearly with age and upper extremity function. These findings show that brain injury results in delayed skeletal maturation independent of malnutrition. This effect on skeletal maturation may explain, in part, the reason that some children with cerebral palsy grow poorly.