Department of Ophthalmology, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Eur J Ophthalmol. 2023 Sep;33(5):1874-1882. doi: 10.1177/11206721231157262. Epub 2023 Feb 12.
Since very preterm children often have increased retinal tortuosity that may indicate decisive architectural changes in the systemic microvascular network, we used a new semi-automatic software to measure retinal vessel tortuosity on fundus digital images of moderate-to-late preterm (MLP) children.
In this observational case-control study, the global and local tortuosity parameters of retinal vessels were evaluated on fundus photographs of 36 MLP children and 36 age- and sex-matched controls. The associations between birth parameters and parameters reflecting retinal vessel tortuosity were evaluated using correlation analysis.
Even after incorporation of anatomical factors, the global and local tortuosity parameters were not significantly different between groups. The MLP group showed a smaller arteriolar caliber (0.53 ± 0.2) than the controls (0.56 ± 0.2; p = 0.013). Other local tortuosity parameters, such as vessel length, distance to fovea, and distance to optic disc, were not significantly different between arteries and veins. Tortuosity in both groups was higher among vessels closer to the fovea (r = -0.077, p < 0.001) and the optic disc (r = -0.0544, p = 0.009). Global tortuosity showed a weakly positive correlation with gestational age and a weakly negative correlation with birth weight in both groups.
MLP patients did not display increased vessel tortuosity in comparison with the controls; however, the arteriolar caliber in the MLP group was smaller than that in children born full-term. Larger studies should confirm this finding and explore associations between cardiovascular and metabolic status and retinal vessel geometry in MLP children.
由于极早产儿的视网膜常出现扭曲，这可能表明全身微血管网络发生了决定性的结构变化，因此我们使用一种新的半自动软件来测量中晚期早产儿（MLP）眼底数字图像的视网膜血管扭曲度。
在这项观察性病例对照研究中，我们评估了 36 名 MLP 儿童和 36 名年龄和性别匹配的对照组的眼底照片的视网膜血管的全局和局部扭曲参数。使用相关分析评估了出生参数与反映视网膜血管扭曲度的参数之间的关系。
即使考虑了解剖因素，两组之间的全局和局部扭曲参数也没有显著差异。MLP 组的小动脉口径（0.53±0.2）小于对照组（0.56±0.2；p=0.013）。其他局部扭曲参数，如血管长度、距黄斑中心凹的距离和距视盘的距离，在动脉和静脉之间没有显著差异。两组中靠近黄斑中心凹（r=-0.077，p<0.001）和视盘（r=-0.0544，p=0.009）的血管扭曲度均较高。两组的全局扭曲度与胎龄呈弱正相关，与出生体重呈弱负相关。
与对照组相比，MLP 患者的血管扭曲度没有增加；然而，MLP 组的小动脉口径小于足月出生的儿童。更大的研究应证实这一发现，并探讨 MLP 儿童的心血管和代谢状况与视网膜血管几何形状之间的关系。
