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Researchers recommend 31-week cutoff for ROP screening
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UPPSALA, Sweden — Screening for retinopathy of prematurity should be done for infants with a gestational age of 31 weeks or less, Swedish researchers suggest.
The researchers said their current screening guidelines for ROP call for testing of infants with a gestational age of 32 weeks or less, but a review of records suggested that an earlier age cutoff can be used.
Gerd Holmström, MD, and E. Larsson, MD, at the University Hospital here, reviewed the effectiveness of ROP screening for all infants born in Stockholm County, Sweden, between Aug. 1998 and July 2000. They found that the incidence of ROP was 26%, and 80% of the infants in the population were effectively screened for ROP. No infants with a gestational age of more than 31 weeks at birth developed severe ROP (stages 3 to 5), and no infants with a gestational age of more than 29 weeks were treated for ROP.
The authors recommend that the criterion be lowered to 31 weeks or less because, in their review, no infant with severe ROP would have been missed using that cutoff.
The study is published in the December issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.