The Rate of Retinal Vessel Dilation in Severe Retinopathy of Prematurity Requiring Treatment

Purpose To assess whether the rate of change of retinal vessel diameter can help identify infants at the highest risk for severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Design Thirty-five infants at risk for ROP were included in this prospective, longitudinal study. Methods Images were obtained using the NIDEK NM200D noncontact camera (NIDEK Inc, Aichi, Japan) at the time of ROP examinations in the intensive care unit. Vessel diameters were measured from digital fundus photographs of right eyes in a masked fashion using VesselMap image analysis software (IM-EDOS GmbH, Weimar, Germany). The rate of change of vessel diameter was calculated based on the linear regression slope and was compared between eyes in which type 1 ROP requiring treatment developed and in controls without ROP or with ROP less severe than type 1. Results Multivariate analysis showed that the group of eyes in which type 1 ROP developed had a greater increase in diameter over time in the inferior temporal veins ( P = .01), superior temporal veins ( P < .0001), mean temporal veins ( P < .0001), superior temporal arteries ( P = .02), and mean temporal arteries ( P = .004). The area under receiver operator characteristic curve for venous diameter change was 0.96 for the superior temporal vein, 0.86 for the inferior temporal vein, and 0.96 for the mean temporal vein. Conclusions On average, the rate of retinal vessel change was greater in eyes with type 1 ROP requiring treatment than in control eyes. The rate of venous diameter change had the best discriminative ability to differentiate between the 2 groups.