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. 2021 Dec 2;21(1):540.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-03027-x.

Time to regain birth weight - a marker to predict the severity of retinopathy of prematurity?

Ajay Anvekar  1 , Sam Athikarisamy  2   3   4 , Shripada Rao  2   3   4 , Andy Gill  2   3   4 , Elizabeth Nathan  5   6 , Dorota Doherty  5   6 , Geoffrey Lam  7   8
Affiliations

Time to regain birth weight - a marker to predict the severity of retinopathy of prematurity?

Ajay Anvekar et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Poor weight gain in the first few weeks of life has been studied as a predictor of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Our aim was to assess whether time taken to regain birthweight (BW) be used as an additional marker to identify infants with type 1 ROP.

Methods: In this retrospective study, preterm infants (< 27 weeks gestational age at birth) born during the period from 1/1/2010-31/12/2015 at a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit in Australia were included. Twenty-seven preterm infants with Type 1 ROP were identified. Controls (No ROP or ROP other than type 1) were matched with cases on gestational age at birth and BW (1:4 ratio). Data were collected from the database and medical records.

Results: The median (IQR) gestational age for Type 1 ROP and control groups were 24 (24-26) and 25 (24-26) weeks respectively and median (IQR) BW for Type 1 ROP and control groups were 675 (635-810) and 773 (666-884) grams respectively. Preterm infants with Type 1 ROP were more likely to be small for gestational age (SGA) (18.5% vs 3.7%, p = 0.015) and had increased weeks on oxygen therapy (median 11.9 vs 9.1, p = 0.028). Time to regain BW was longer in preterm infants with type 1 ROP than controls but did not reach statistical significance (median 9 vs 7 days, OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00-1.17, p = 0.059) adjusted for SGA and duration of oxygen therapy. The area under the curve from the time to regain BW model with adjustment for SGA and duration of oxygen therapy was 0.73 (95% CI 0.62-0.83).

Conclusion: We hypothesize that time to regain BW has potential to aid prediction of Type 1 ROP and this warrants further investigation in a larger prospective study.

Keywords: Birth weight; Preterm; Retinopathy of prematurity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study design
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Box plot comparing time to regain birthweight on Type 1 ROP
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
ROC curve illustrating predictive potential of time to regain birthweight, duration of oxygen therapy and SGA for developing Type 1 ROP
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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