Comparison of Color Doppler Imaging Criteria for the Ophthalmic Artery and Central Retinal Artery in Infants with Retinopathy of Prematurity with and Without Plus Disease

Background: Color Doppler imaging (CDI) is a non-aggressive and safe technique for the clinical management of retinal diseases. Recently, the number of infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) has increased due to the incidence of premature births. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the CDI criteria for the ophthalmic artery (OA) and central retinal artery (CRA) in ROP infants with and without plus disease. Patients and Methods: In this case-control study, 42 premature infants (21 infants with plus disease and 21 infants without plus disease) underwent CDI. The arterial CDI parameters, including end-diastolic velocity (EDV), pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), and peak systolic velocity (PSV), were measured in these patients. After collecting the data, t-test and chi-square tests were used for data analysis. P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The mean EDV of CRA in patients with and without plus disease was 4.35 ± 1.00 and 5.27 ± 1.02 cm/sec, respectively (P = 0.005). The mean PSV of CRA in patients with and without plus disease was 15.65 ± 3.35 and 18.39 ± 4.39 cm/sec, respectively (P = 0.029). However, no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of PSV or EDV of OA (P > 0.05). Also, no significant difference was observed between the two groups considering the RI and PI of CRA and OA (P > 0.05). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, CDI criteria, such as EDV and PSV of CRA, were significantly lower in infants with plus disease as compared to those without plus disease. Since detecting the early stages of plus disease is a challenge for ophthalmologists, assessment of these criteria can be helpful for differentiation of these two subgroups of patients. However, further studies with a larger sample size are needed to determine the cutoff value.