PEDIATRICS Vol. 97 No. 3 March 1996, pp. 343-348
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Fundus Pigmentation in Retinopathy of Prematurity

Tova Monos MD1, Shirley D. Rosen MA2, Michael Karplus MD3, and Yuval Yassur MD1

1 The Department of Ophthalmology, Soroka Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
2 The Department of Neonatology, Soroka Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
3 The Department of Middle East Eye Research Institute, Soroka Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.

Objective. A prospective study design was used to investigate the association between different degrees of fundus pigmentation and the incidence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) among very low birth weight infants in a large neonatal intensive care unit.

Methods. The study group consisted of 161 infants weighing 1500 g or less at birth and included all infants born from 1988 to 1990 who survived at least 10 weeks. Presence or lack of any acute stage ROP was determined by weekly ophthalmological examination from the age of 4 weeks. The degree of fundus pigmentation was recorded for each infant during the first examination.

Results. Infants with dark fundus pigmentation were found to be at half the risk of developing ROP as compared with the infants having light/medium fundus pigmentation (relative risk 0.5;95% confidence interval = 0.2-1.1). When controlling for birth weight, gestational age, length of oxygen therapy, and ethnic group in multivariate analysis, dark pigmentation was an independent and statistically significant protective factor (odds ratio = 0.09, 95% confidence interval = 0.02-0.6). None of the infants with Stage III ROP or higher had dark pigmentation.

Conclusion. We speculate that large amounts of melanin in the retinal pigment epithelium or choroid may protect the dark-pigmented very low birth weight infant from developing ROP.

Key Words: retinopathy of prematurity • incidence • fundus pigmentation • melanin • oxygen toxicity

Submitted on June 21, 1994
Accepted on March 27, 1995




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