Incidence of retinopathy of prematurity in low birth weight infants with peri-intraventricular hemorrhage.

Data from 80 high-risk low birth infants were analysed to determine whether there is a clinical association between Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) and Peri-Intraventricular Hemorrhages (PIVH) in preterm newborns. Diagnosis of retinopathy was made by retinal examination at approximately four weeks of age. All infants were routinely and repeatedly scanned by real-time ultrasound to diagnose the presence of Peri-Intraventricular Hemorrhages. PIVH was clearly present in 41 (51.2%) of them, whereas 39 (48.7%) infants had no evidence of intracerebral bleeding. We found no statistically significant association between cicatricial retinopathy and PIVH (P = 0.1). We suppose therefore, that the sensitivity of retinal vasculature and cerebral vasculature to the various factors considered to be important in the development of PIVH is different.