{"doi":"10.1167/tvst.14.5.17","title":"Association Between Optic Nerve Morphology by Handheld Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography and Intracranial Pathology in Preterm Infants","abstract":"Purpose: This study investigates optic disc and macular morphology using handheld spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in preterm infants with and without brain pathology. Methods: In this prospective observational study, premature newborns underwent handheld SD-OCT at 36 weeks postmenstrual age. Semiautomated quantitative OCT analysis was performed including the optic disc and macula. Routine head ultrasound radiology reports were obtained from the medical record. Results: A total of 69 patients (35 male and 34 female) were included. The average birth weight was 982.7 ± 277.4 g and gestational age was 27.99 ± 2.57 weeks. Extremely preterm infants born at <28 weeks' gestation had a larger cup diameter (P = 0.006), thinner nasal neural rim thickness (P = 0.010), and deeper maximal cup depth (P = 0.010) compared with preterm infants (≥28 weeks' gestation). Brain lesions on ultrasound examination were detected in 15 patients (21.7%), with all having intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and 2 patients also presenting with periventricular leukomalacia. Patients with IVH had a thicker central macular retinal nerve fiber layer, ganglion cell layer, and inner plexiform layer than those without IVH (P = 0.029, P = 0.022, and P = 0.002). These differences persisted after adjusting for retinopathy of prematurity stage (P = 0.042, P = 0.034, and P = 0.007, respectively). When controlling for gestational age, the ganglion cell layer and inner plexiform layer differences remained (P = 0.011 and P = 0.032, respectively). Optic nerve parameters did not differ between infants with and without IVH. Conclusions: IVH was associated independently with arrested foveal maturation with no discernible effect on optic disc morphology in the preterm newborn period. Translational Relevance: The macular structural changes detected by SD-OCT in preterm newborns with brain pathology may suggest the need for closer monitoring of visual development in these infants.","journal":"Translational Vision Science & Technology","year":2025,"id":536193,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9496,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1316016,"name":"Jason Bunk","orcid":"0000-0002-9308-6805","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":943218,"name":"Claire Park","orcid":"0000-0002-3616-5451","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":750857,"name":"Krystle Perez","orcid":"0000-0001-5456-6059","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":298924,"name":"Manjiri Dighe","orcid":"0000-0003-0047-5148","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364505,"name":"Leona Ding","orcid":"0000-0002-6234-6109","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":505844,"name":"Laura E. Grant","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":505845,"name":"Ayesha Shariff","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":505843,"name":"Thomas B. Gillette","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":505174,"name":"Kristina Tarczy‐Hornoch","orcid":"0000-0001-6881-0382","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364507,"name":"Michelle T. Cabrera","orcid":"0000-0002-8218-0775","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1421043,"name":"Hyeshin Jeon","orcid":"0000-0001-8758-7366","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":29,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:52:05.227140Z","pmid":"40402543","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}