Corneal refractive error and astigmatism in patients aged 6 to 18 years with a history of retinopathy of prematurity and birth weight of <1500 g.

PURPOSE: To investigate corneal refractive power (CR) and astigmatism (AS) in 6- to 18-year-old children with a history of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and birth weight of <1500 g who either did or did not undergo retinal photocoagulation (PC). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. METHODS: We examined 143 eyes of 77 children in 2021. The children were divided into three groups for evaluation of CR and AS: those with a birth weight of ≥2500 g (normal birth weight [NBW] group, 13 eyes) as controls, those with spontaneously resolved ROP (sr-ROP group, 27 eyes), and those who underwent PC for treatment of ROP (PC-ROP group, 103 eyes). Swept-source anterior segment optical coherence tomography was used to analyze the cornea. RESULTS: The median CR in the NBW, sr-ROP, and PC-ROP groups was 42.2 (41.3, 42.8) diopters (D), 44.5 (43.2, 45.5) D, and 45.2 (43.8, 46.6) D, respectively. The median AS in the NBW, sr-ROP, and PC-ROP groups was 1.2 (1.0, 1.5) D, 1.1 (0.8, 1.6) D, and 2.1 (1.4, 2.7) D. In the PC-ROP group, the with-the-rule astigmatic axis was 97%. In all three groups, a strong positive correlation was found between the mean anterior and posterior CR (NBW: r=0.795, sr-ROP: r=0.842, PC-ROP: r=0.890) and AS (NBW: r=0.883, sr-ROP: r=0.841, PC-ROP: r=0.860). CONCLUSION: CR was significantly higher in the sr-ROP (p=0.013) and PC-ROP (p<0.001) groups than in the NBW group. The PC-ROP group had significantly more AS than the sr-ROP group. There was a strong correlation between the anterior and posterior CR and AS.

Refractive state and visual acuity of children with extremely low birth weight at 3 years old in Japan.

PURPOSE: To investigate the refractive status and visual acuity of 3-year-old children with extremely low birth weight (ELBW). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: We examined 161 children born between January 2009 and December 2014. The children were divided into five groups for evaluation of visual acuity and refraction: no retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), reverse ROP, photocoagulation (PC) zone II (ZII), PC (ZI), and PC (ZI + lens-sparing vitrectomy [vit]). RESULTS: Median (1st quartile, 3rd quartile) gestational age was 25 (24, 26) weeks. Median birth weight was 738 (588, 846) g. Spherical equivalence (SE) was +0.38 (-0.06, +0.75) diopters (D) in no ROP, +0.63 (-0.25, +1.34) D in reverse ROP, +0.38 (-0.75, +1.31) D in PC (ZII), -3.31 (-8.06, +0.16) D in PC (ZI), and -12.00 (-13.50, -4.50) D in PC (ZI+ vit) children. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in log MAR was 0.15 (0.07, 0.26) in no ROP, 0.17 (0.10, 0.30) in reverse ROP, 0.22 (0.10, 0.38) in PC (ZII), 0.45 (0.22, 0.55) in PC (ZI), and 1.10 (0.82, 1.30) in PC (ZI+ vit) children. There was a significant correlation between SE and BCVA (r = -0.43, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The no ROP, reverse ROP, and PC (ZII) groups showed no significant differences in SE or BCVA, accounting for 79.5% of ELBW children. SE and BCVA in the PC (ZI) and PC (ZI+ vit) groups were worse than in the other groups. The current results reveal a correlation between SE and BCVA.