Visuospatial skills, ocular alignment, and magnetic resonance imaging findings in very low birth weight adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To describe ocular alignment and stereoacuity in adolescents with very low birth weight (VLBW) in comparison with a matched control group and to investigate associations with white matter damage of immaturity (WMDI) and visuospatial skills in the VLBW group.


METHODS
Fifty-nine 15-year-old VLBW subjects and 55 age- and sex-matched controls with normal birth weight underwent examination, including measurement of ocular alignment using cover test and Maddox rod and cycloplegic refraction. Stereoacuity was assessed with the TNO test, best-corrected visual acuity with a Konstantin Moutakis letter chart, and visuospatial skills with the performance tests, defined as performance intelligence quotient (IQ), in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). All VLBW subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain.


RESULTS
Ocular misalignment was significantly more common in the VLBW group than in the control group (22% compared with 4%; p = 0.004). Exophoria, subnormal stereoacuity, and subnormal performance IQ were significantly more common in the VLBW group than in the control group (p = 0.006, p = 0.011, and p = 0.015, respectively). Ocular misalignment was associated with WMDI (p = 0.035) and subnormal performance IQ (p = 0.020). Of the VLBW subjects with ocular misalignment, 69% had WMDI and/or subnormal performance IQ.


CONCLUSIONS
The VLBW adolescents had more visuospatial problems, lower stereoacuity, and more ocular misalignment than the control subjects. Ocular misalignment was associated with visuospatial deficiencies and/or WMDI in the VLBW group and was a better predictor for visuospatial deficits than WMDI.
Hellgren
Kerstin
K
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. kerstin.hellgren@ste.ki.se
Aring
Eva
E
Jacobson
Lena
L
Ygge
Jan
J
Martin
Lene
L
D000293:Adolescent; D015858:Anisometropia / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D001251:Astigmatism / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D003867:Depth Perception; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006956:Hyperopia / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014796:Visual Perception