Physiology of the developing ocular vasculature.

A conservative view of some of the data discussed here would be that they are anecdotal, but the possibility that factors other than oxygen alone contribute to genesis of ROP is compelling, as is the possibility that clinically observed ROP is only a narrow range of a broad spectrum of retinopathies that could be produced in the immature retina were appropriate physiologic parameters varied outside the current clinically acceptable range. In this context, the significance of such preliminary investigations as these is that they should alert investigators and clinicians to look for correlations between incidence of ROP and factors other than oxygen alone.