Ischaemic brain injury
This article on ischaemic brain injury by Mcloone and colleagues is from
The British Journal of Ophthalmolgy and looked into increased incidence of optic nerve hypoplasia in infants.
The aims were to evaluate the role of optic disc morphology in dating ischaemic brain injurys in infants.
They analysed 109 premature infants by use of cranial ultrasounds and magnetic resonance imaging. The group wss divided into groups of those with periventricular leucomalacia and intraventricular haemorrhage those without, the control group contained infants with normal neuroimaging at term and at the age of two.
‘Using the image analysis software of the RetCam, optic disc diameter (ODD), optic disc area (ODA), and optic cup area (OCA) were measured at 33-34 weeks gestational age. As serial cranial ultrasonography had been performed, it was possible to date the brain injury in those infants with periventricular white matter (PVWM) damage.’
‘RESULTS: Although there was a trend towards reducing ODD, ODA, and OCA with increasing severity of IVH, only the IVH 4 group differed significantly from the controls for these parameters (p = 0.002, p = 0.02, and p = 0.04, respectively). 44.4% of infants with grade 4 IVH had small discs. Only one patient had a large cup in a normal sized disc; this patient had IVH 4. In patients with PVWM damage, the median time of insult was 27 weeks in those with small discs and 28 weeks in those with normal discs. This difference was not significant (p = 0.23).’
‘CONCLUSIONS: Premature infants with IVH 4 have an increased incidence of optic nerve hypoplasia. We found no association between disc morphology and timing of brain injury.’
The full article can be found via pubmed   PMID: 16547329 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]