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Importance: Early diagnosis of plus disease is critical in the management of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). However, there is substantial interexpert disagreement in the diagnosis of plus disease based on vascular changes alone. Information derived from optical coherence tomography (OCT) may help characterize the severity of vascular and structural abnormalities in ROP., Objective: To describe integrated visualization of 3-dimensional (3-D) data from investigational swept-source OCT optimized to delineate retinal vascular and microanatomical features in eyes with and without ROP., Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional, observational report of OCT was captured in the prospective Study of Eye Imaging in Preterm Infants (BabySTEPS) designed in July 2016 at the Duke Health Intensive Care Nursery. Between December 2018 and August 2019, 2 preterm infants born at 24 and 30 weeks' gestation were enrolled, underwent ROP screening, and were imaged at those screening visits. Data at 36 weeks' postmenstrual age were analyzed via this visualization developed between September 2020 and May 2021., Main Outcomes and Measures: Superimposed en face retinal vascular shadow view (RVSV) montages and thickness maps were used along with OCT B-scans to evaluate retinal vasculature and cross-section in eyes with and without ROP., Results: In the right eyes of 2 infants, 3-D data were integrated and visualized from investigational bedside OCT imaging at the posterior pole. In the infant who developed type 1 ROP, RVSV-OCT confirmed presence of dilated and tortuous posterior pole vessels, shunting, and incomplete perifoveal vascular development, resulting in a temporal notch of avascular retina in zone 1. The thickness map revealed irregular pockets of thickening and thinning, and integrated visualization outlined the demarcation between thicker vascularized retina and thinner avascular fovea and presence of extraretinal neovascularization overlying elevated vessels in the superior arcades. In the infant without ROP (stage 0), RVSV-OCT revealed no abnormal vascular findings at the posterior pole. The integrated visualization showed a dome-shaped retinal thickening at the fovea, which was confirmed as macular edema., Conclusions and Relevance: In 2 preterm infants in BabySTEPS, 3-D visualization of OCT findings during the ongoing ROP disease process demonstrated supplemental information about the retinal vasculature and microanatomy that can be useful to clinicians. These additional details provided by OCT could be integrated into future ROP screening methods with artificial intelligence-based analytics.

Importance: Binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy (BIO) examination for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a well-known cause of repeated preterm infant stress., Objective: To compare stress during investigational optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging to that during BIO for ROP., Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study examined infants at the bedside in the intensive care nursery. Consecutive preterm infants enrolled in Study of Eye Imaging in Preterm Infants (BabySTEPS) who had any research OCT imaging as part of the study. Patients were recruited from June to November 2019, and analysis began April 2020., Main Outcomes and Measures: Infant stress was measured using modified components of a neonatal pain assessment tool before (baseline) and during OCT imaging and BIO examination of each eye., Results: For 71 eye examinations of 16 infants (mean [SD] gestational age, 27 [3] weeks; birth weight, 869 [277] g), change from baseline to each eye examination was lower during OCT imaging than during BIO and the difference between OCT imaging and BIO at each eye examination was significant for the following: infant cry score (first eye examination: mean [SD], 0.03 [0.3] vs 1.68 [1.2]; -1.65 [95% CI, -1.91 to -1.39]; second eye examination: mean [SD], 0.1 [0.3] vs 1.97 [1.2]; -1.87 [95% CI, -2.19 to -1.54]), facial expression (first eye: 3 [4%] vs 59 [83%]; -79% [95% CI, -87% to -72%]; second eye: 4 [6%] vs 61 [88%]; -83% [95% CI, -89% to -76%]), and heart rate (first eye: mean [SD], -7 [16] vs 13 [18]; -20 [95% CI, -26 to -14]); second eye: mean [SD], -3 [18] vs 20 [20] beats per minute; -23 [95% CI, -29 to -18]) (P < .001 for all). Change in respiratory rate and oxygen saturation did not differ between OCT imaging and BIO., Conclusions and Relevance: While the role of OCT alone or in combination with BIO is currently unknown for ROP, these findings suggest that investigational OCT imaging of ROP is less stressful than BIO examination by a trained ophthalmologist.

Importance: Macular edema during infancy, a subclinical feature identified in premature infants by handheld spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), has been associated with poorer visual acuity and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Features of macular edema on fluorescein angiography (FA) are needed to understand its pathophysiology, but to date have not been reported previously., Objective: To investigate the FA features of macular edema during infancy., Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective review was conducted of 8 infants at Duke Eye Center who received simultaneous SD-OCT and FA imaging from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2017. Research and clinical care images were obtained during examination of the infants under anesthesia or at the bedside in the neonatal intensive care unit., Main Outcomes and Measures: Side-to-side comparison of research handheld SD-OCT images and clinically indicated FA., Results: Imaging was conducted at a mean (SD) of 42.8 (4.2) weeks' postmenstruation age in the 8 infants (1 [13%] female; 2 [25%] African American; 6 [75%] white). Examination of the FA and SD-OCT images found (1) no macular fluorescein leakage in 3 eyes of 2 infants with retinopathy of prematurity without macular edema and 1 eye with a single cyst, (2) equivocal fluorescein leakage in 2 eyes of 1 infant with mild macular edema, (3) late macular fluorescein leakage in 4 eyes of 2 infants with moderate to severe macular edema, and (4) macular fluorescein leakage from posterior preretinal neovascularization in the macula in 4 eyes of 3 infants with retinopathy of prematurity without macular edema., Conclusions and Relevance: This observation of fluorescein leakage in 4 infant eyes with macular edema provides new insights into the possible mechanisms of this subclinical finding. Macular fluorescein leakage could indicate a breakdown or delayed maturation of the blood-retinal barrier or dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelium. Furthermore, the cross-sectional OCT view aids in identifying preretinal neovascularization, which can also cause focal macular leakage in these infants. This new perspective may improve our understanding and potentially guide future treatments of premature infants with subnormal vision.