Incomplete retinal vascularization with retinopathy of prematurity-like ridges in healthy full-term newborns

To describe the characteristics and clinical course of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)-like ridges in healthy full-term newborns.

A retrospective medical record review was performed on newborns who underwent fundus photography within 72 h of birth between January 1^st and December 31^st, 2019 at Women & Children's Health Care Hospital of Huantai, China. The RetCam 3 wide-field digital imaging system was used for fundus photography. ROP-like ridges were discovered and described.

Total of 5507 full-term infants underwent fundus photography. ROP-like ridges were discovered in 90 eyes from 57 infants (1.0%). Stage 1 ROP-like was seen in 63 of the eyes (70%), Stage 2 ROP-like in 26 of the eyes (28.9%), and Stage 3 ROP-like in 1 eye (1.1%). These ROP-like ridges were found in Zone II (41.1%) and Zone III (58.9%), but not in Zone I. Eight (8.9%) of the eyes had pre-plus-like diseases. No eyes had plus disease. All ROP-like ridges and pre-plus-like diseases were spontaneously regressed with a mean duration of 39.0 ± 8.2 days. Male sex (P = 0.003) was positively associated with ROP-like changes.

Healthy full-term newborns may have incomplete retinal vascularization and ROP-like ridges at birth. These ROP-like ridges showed signs of spontaneous regression.