Relationship between retinal thickness profiles and visual outcomes in young adults born extremely preterm: The EPICure@19 Study

PURPOSE: To quantify inner and outer retinal layer thicknesses and understand their relevance to visual function among young adults born extremely preterm (EP). DESIGN: Prospective observational study with 19 years follow-up PARTICIPANTS: A total of 354 eyes (226 eyes of former EP infants and 128 age-matched full-term control eyes) from 177 young adults were evaluated. Among EP participants, 50% of eyes (112/226) were not previously diagnosed with neonatal retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), 38% of eyes (84) had ROP not deemed to require treatment in the neonatal period and 13% (30) had neonatal cryotherapy or laser ablation for ROP. METHODS: Subjects underwent eye examinations including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and Heidelberg Spectralis macular spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging. Retinal layers were auto-segmented and thickness profiles were computed at the fovea by the instrument software. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Correlation between retinal sublayer thickness and BCVA. RESULTS: Compared with control eyes, the inner and outer retinal layers of EP eyes were significantly thicker and BCVA was significantly reduced. Retinal layer thicknesses and BCVA were similar for untreated EP eyes and those without neonatal ROP. In contrast, treated eyes had increased inner and outer retinal layer thickness and decreased vision. Inner retinal layer thickness was moderately correlated with worse BCVA (r = 0.30, p < 0.001) but outer retinal layer thickness was not (r = -0.01, p = 0.80). Multivariate regression indicated ganglion cell layer thickness was a significant independent predictor of BCVA. CONCLUSIONS: Extremely premature birth influences maturation of the fovea and visual outcomes into early adult life. Increased ganglion cell layer thickness was associated with worse BCVA. Eyes requiring neonatal treatment for ROP had associated worse BCVA at the age of 19 years