Causes of Childhood Blindness in the United States Using the IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight).
Lim Han Woong, Pershing Suzann, Moshfeghi Darius M, Heo Hwan, Haque Md Enamul, Lambert Scott R
AI Summary
Studying US childhood blindness via IRIS Registry data, ROP was the leading cause, and over half of cases were treatable, highlighting intervention opportunities.
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate causes of childhood blindness in the United States using the IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight).
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Participants
Patients ≤ 18 years of age with visual acuity (VA) 20/200 or worse in their better-seeing eye in the IRIS Registry during 2018.
Methods
Causes of blindness were classified by anatomic site and specific diagnoses.
Main outcome measures
Percentages of causes of blindness.
Results
Of 81 164 children with 2018 VA data in the IRIS Registry, 961 (1.18%) had VA 20/200 or worse in their better-seeing eye. Leading causes of blindness were retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in 301 patients (31.3%), nystagmus in 78 patients (8.1%), and cataract in 64 patients (6.7%). The retina was the leading anatomic site (47.7%) followed by optic nerve (11.6%) and lens (10.0%). A total of 52.4% of patients had treatable causes of blindness.
Conclusions
This analysis offers a unique cross-sectional view of childhood blindness in the United States using a clinical data registry. More than one-half of blind patients had a treatable cause of blindness.
Financial disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.
MeSH Terms
Shields Classification
Key Concepts4
In a cross-sectional study of 81,164 children aged 18 years or younger in the United States using the IRIS Registry in 2018, 961 patients (1.18%) had visual acuity 20/200 or worse in their better-seeing eye.
In a cross-sectional study of 961 blind children aged 18 years or younger in the United States using the IRIS Registry in 2018, the leading causes of blindness were retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in 301 patients (31.3%), nystagmus in 78 patients (8.1%), and cataract in 64 patients (6.7%).
In a cross-sectional study of 961 blind children aged 18 years or younger in the United States using the IRIS Registry in 2018, the retina was the leading anatomic site for blindness (47.7%), followed by the optic nerve (11.6%) and lens (10.0%).
In a cross-sectional study of 961 blind children aged 18 years or younger in the United States using the IRIS Registry in 2018, 52.4% of patients had treatable causes of blindness.
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