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SD-OCT facilitates in vivo examination of foveal development in premature infants
Ophthalmology. 2011;118(12):2315-2325.
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Spectral domain optical coherence tomography enabled the study of foveal maturation and specialization in premature infants, a study found.
"This study provides the first view into the development of living cellular layers of the human retina and of subcellular specialization at the fovea in premature infant eyes using portable SD-OCT," the study authors said. "Our work establishes a framework of the timeline of human foveal development, allowing us to identify unexpected retinal abnormalities that may provide new keys to disease activity and a method for mapping foveal structures from infancy to adulthood that may be integral in future studies of vision and visual cortex development."
The prospective study included 31 premature neonates 31 to 41 weeks' post-menstrual age. Groups of nine children and nine adults with no ocular pathology served as controls.
Investigators conducted semi-automatic retinal layer segmentation and analyzed central foveal thickness, foveal to parafoveal ratio and three-dimensional thickness mapping. Primary outcome measures were in vivo determination of foveal morphology, layer segmentation, sub-cellular changes and spatio-temporal layer shifting.
Study results showed various signs of foveal immaturity in neonate eyes, such as shallow foveal pit, persistence of inner retinal layers and a thin photoreceptor layer that was thinnest at the foveal center.
"Three-dimensional mapping showed displacement of retinal layers out of the foveal center as the fovea matured and the progressive formation of the inner/outer segment band in the opposite direction," the authors said. "A surprising finding was the presence of cystoid macular edema in 58% of premature neonates that appeared to affect inner foveal maturation."