title: Pre-term delivery and subsequent ocular development. A 7-10 year follow-up of children screened 1982-84 for ROP. 3) Refraction. Myopia of prematurity.
abstract: Refractive findings are reported in a follow-up study comprising 88 children aged 7-10 years, who were submitted to regular control for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the first months after their pre-term delivery 1982-84 (mean birthweight 1467 g, mean gestational age 31 weeks). The refractive range was -13 to +6.75 D. In four subjects with fully-blown ROP both eyes were left blind and dysmorphic. Twenty-four had had ROP with regression; myopia of prematurity (MOP) appeared in six (25%). At follow-up the myopia frequency in the remaining 60 without ROP was 5%. Out of the 9 subjects with uni- or bilateral myopia of prematurity three had no evidence of early ROP. With a median corrected acuity of 0.5 only, the eyes with MOP had a lower corrected visual score than in the rest of the material (median monocular acuity 0.9). The latter value is even a little lower than what was previously reported in full-terms of a similar age (median acuity above 1.0). Obviously, as a sequel to the pre-term delivery we are dealing not only with early myopia in some subjects; further, the potential for developing full vision appears influenced and reduced. This applies to the total group of ex-prematures, but in particular it is valid for myopia of prematurity.
authors.affiliation: Eye Department, Hillerød Sygehus and Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University, Denmark.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Fledelius
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009216:Myopia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D011247:Pregnancy; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D012178:Retinopathy of Prematurity / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*