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How to Obtain Reliable Visual Event-related Potentials in Newborns
Published on: October 24, 2019
Early visual and neuro-development in preterm infants with and without retinopathy
Daniela Ricci1, Simona Lucibello2, Lorenzo Orazi3
1Paediatric Neurology and Psychiatry, Catholic University, Largo A. Gemelli 8, Rome, Italy; National Centre of Services and Research for Prevention of Blindness and Rehabilitation of Visually Impaired, Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli IRCCS, Largo A. Gemelli 8, Rome, Italy.
Background:
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is often associated with visual impairment and multiple developmental disabilities.
Aims:
As most of the previous studies include infants with brain lesions, that can determine visual impairment per se, a cohort of low neurological risk preterm infants without ROP and with various degree of severity of ROP was assessed in order to establish visual and neurodevelopmental outcome.
Study Design:
Preterm infants born at <31 weeks gestation, without major brain lesions, underwent visual function assessment at 1 year corrected age and neurodevelopmental assessment at 2 years corrected age.
Subjects:
One hundred and five infants were included in the study: 42 infants did not develop ROP, 7 reached stage 1 in zone 2 ROP, 37 reached prethreshold (untreated) type 2 ROP. The remaining 19 infants were classified as type 1 ROP.
Outcome Measures:
Visual function (including fixing, tracking, visual acuity, visual field, attention at distance and nystagmus) were assessed at 12 months corrected age and Griffiths Scales at 2 years corrected age.
Results:
The severity of ROP was strongly correlated (p < 0.001) with both visual function at 1 year and neurodevelopment at 2 years. Similarly, the presence of nystagmus was also strongly correlated with visual and neurodevelopmental sequelae.
Conclusions:
Infants with no or milder retinopathy showed normal visual function at 1 year and neurodevelopment at 2 years. Infants who underwent treatment more frequently showed abnormal results on several aspects of visual function. Presence of nystagmus appeared to increase the risk for abnormal visual function and neurodevelopmental outcome.
