The role of blood flow changes in the ophthalmic artery in the pathogenesis of retinopathy of prematurity

    Purpose: To study the hemodynamic status of the ophthalmic artery in children receiving an additional oxygen therapy to determine its role in the pathogenesis of retinopathy of prematurity.

    Material and methods. The Doppler investigation of the ophthalmic artery was performed in 21 children (42 eyes) of the group with a risk of the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) receiving the oxygen therapy in the period of 1-6 weeks of life. At the birth moment the average gestational age was 28.6±1.4 weeks, weight – 1187±244g.

    Results. A spastic nature of blood flow in the ophthalmic artery was detected in all children. In children of the group with the ROP development the spasm of the retinal arteries is pronounced to a greater extent, significantly higher than the index of resistance (IR) of the ophthalmic artery compared with the children in the group without ROP (0.73±0.02). In the group with the ROP development in the neonatal period the diastolic blood flow was reduced. The manifestation of the ROP clinic corresponds to a decrease of the resistance in the ophthalmic artery walls and an acceleration of the linear velocity of blood flow after 32 weeks of gestational age. The blood flow in the ophthalmic artery was more stable in the group of children without the ROP. Any statistically significant difference in blood flow parameters of the ophthalmic artery, depending on the gestational age in this group was not detected (p>0.05) that can be explained by a higher morphological maturity of the children and an adequate biochemical auto-regulation.

    Key words: a preterm infant, retinopathy of prematurity, ophthalmic artery, Doppler investigations, biochemical autoregulation.