Project Details

Wide-angle Vitreous Imaging in Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy

Eileen Hwang, MD, PhD

Summary

BACKGROUND: Children with familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) must undergo regular examinations under general anesthesia, which may negatively affect neurocognitive development. In FEVR, two processes contribute to vision loss: 1) abnormalities of retinal vasculature and 2) traction from the vitreous gel on the retina. GAP: Tests to detect early vascular abnormalities require anesthesia in most children, but methods to detect early vitreous traction are not well developed and could potentially reduce the need for examinations under anesthesia. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesize that children with FEVR will have higher stages of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) compared to healthy children, and that children with more severe FEVR will have higher stages of PVD. METHODS: In a prospective, observational study, we will obtain wide-angle optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements of PVD stage at a single time point. RESULTS: We found that FEVR subjects were significantly more likely to have PVD stages greater than 1 compared to healthy, age-matched control subjects. Within the group of FEVR subjects, we did not find a correlation between FEVR stage and PVD stage. IMPACT: Our findings support the use of wide-angle OCT to monitor disease in children with FEVR.