Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of childhood blindness, driven by aberrant retinal vascular development in preterm infants. While hyperglycemia is a recognized risk factor, its impact may vary depending on its timing relative to the biphasic pathogenesis of ROP. This study aimed to generate a hypothesis regarding the differential association of hyperglycemia on postnatal day 1 versus day 7 with the incidence of ROP in a high-risk neonatal population.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional, hypothesis-generating study at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah General Hospital. Medical records of 68 preterm (<37 weeks gestation) and low-birth-weight (<2500 grams) infants who underwent ROP screening were reviewed. The exposures of interest were hyperglycemia (blood glucose >125 mg/dL) on postnatal day 1 (D1) and day 7 (D7). The primary outcome was the diagnosis of any stage of ROP. Statistical analysis involved Chi-square tests and exploratory multivariate logistic regression to adjust for select confounders.
Results: Of the 68 infants included (mean gestational age 30.5 ± 2.2 weeks, mean birth weight 1447.5 ± 373.0 grams), 11 (16.2%) were diagnosed with ROP. Hyperglycemia was present in 29.4% of infants on D1 and 13.2% on D7. In logistic regression analysis, a strong statistical association was observed between hyperglycemia and ROP for both D1 (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 55.7; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 5.1–611.0; p=0.001) and D7 (AOR = 74.5; 95% CI: 9.0–613.4; p<0.001). However, the profoundly wide confidence intervals indicate significant statistical instability and imprecision.
Conclusion: This study found a strong, albeit statistically imprecise, association between hyperglycemia on both the first and seventh day of life and the incidence of ROP. These findings support the hypothesis that the timing of glycemic dysregulation may be critical, potentially impacting different phases of ROP pathogenesis. The results, while preliminary, underscore the need for larger, prospective studies to confirm these associations and elucidate the role of glycemic control in ROP prevention.
Keywords
Article Details
As our aim is to disseminate original research article, hence the publishing right is a necessary one. The publishing right is needed in order to reach the agreement between the author and publisher. As the journal is fully open access, the authors will sign an exclusive license agreement.
The authors have the right to:
- Share their article in the same ways permitted to third parties under the relevant user license.
- Retain copyright, patent, trademark and other intellectual property rights including research data.
- Proper attribution and credit for the published work.
For the open access article, the publisher is granted to the following right.
- The non-exclusive right to publish the article and grant right to others.
- For the published article, the publisher applied for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
