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SUNDROP initiative: Telemedicine shows high accuracy in diagnosing ROP
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Telemedicine proved accurate and reliable in diagnosing treatment-warranted retinopathy of prematurity, according to a study by the Stanford University Network for Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity telemedicine initiative.
“Telemedicine, as implemented in the SUNDROP initiative, assists the ROP workforce in identifying high-risk infants with vision-threatening disease and ensuring all premature infants have access to quaternary nursery level care, regardless of their birthplace,” the study authors said. “The ROP screening burden may be alleviated with the use of wide-angle digital retinal photography interpreted remotely to complement the work of pediatric ophthalmologists and retina specialists.”
The SUNDROP study included 1,022 eyes of 511 infants screened for ROP at six neonatal intensive care units between December 2005 and November 2010. An ROP specialist used remote retinal photography to evaluate all cases.
All infants underwent outpatient binocular indirect ophthalmoscope examinations until discharge from the hospital or initiation of treatment. Primary outcome measures were treatment-warranted ROP and adverse anatomic events.
Fifteen infants were diagnosed with treatment-warranted ROP based on telemedicine interpretation alone and underwent laser photocoagulation; no infants progressed to macular fold, retrolental mass, retinal detachment or severe vision loss.
There was one false positive reading and no false negative readings. Telemedicine showed 100% sensitivity, 99.8% specificity, 93.8% positive predicative value and 100% negative predictive value for diagnosis of treatment-warranted ROP.
Birth weight and gestational age were significantly lower in infants with treatment-warranted ROP (P < .001) than in those without treatment-warranted ROP.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
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