title: Visuospatial skills, ocular alignment, and magnetic resonance imaging findings in very low birth weight adolescents.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. kerstin.hellgren@ste.ki.se
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hellgren
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aring
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ygge
authors.forename: Lene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: 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