Introduction

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a potentially serious eye disorder affecting very preterm infants. Non-proliferative ROP (NP-ROP), also known as Early Stage ROP, is characterized by deficient retinal angiogenesis. Proliferative ROP (P-ROP), also known as Late Stage ROP, is characterized by pathologic angiogenesis. The use of neonatal haemoglobin A1C as a biomarker for ROP has not yet been evaluated.

Materials and methods

We modified the Haemoglobin A1C assay for use with neonatal dried blood spots (DBS) and then assessed A1C levels via Elisa immunoassay on DBS from 43 preterm infants (with gestational ages 26–28 weeks). We measured A1C on DBS collected at <1 week and 4 weeks of chronological age.

Results

Compared to matched counterparts without ROP, there is significantly lower HbA1c in infants who develop NP-ROP, this occurs at Week 4 (p=0.004), but is not seen at Week 1; there is significantly higher HbA1c in infants with P-ROP, this occurs both at Week 1 (p<0.05) and Week 4 (p=0.005).

Conclusions

The A1C test, modified for use with DBS, is a feasible biomarker for ROP; low A1C is a potential biomarker for non-proliferative ROP and high A1C is for proliferative ROP.

中文翻译：

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新生儿血红蛋白A1C作为早产儿视网膜病变的生物标志物的可行性。

介绍

早产儿视网膜病变（ROP）是一种潜在的严重眼病，会影响早产儿。非增殖性ROP（NP-ROP），也称为早期ROP，其特征是视网膜血管生成不足。增生性ROP（P-ROP），也称为晚期ROP，其特征在于病理性血管生成。尚未评估使用新生儿血红蛋白A1C作为ROP的生物标志物。

材料和方法

我们修改了血红蛋白A1C测定法，以用于新生儿干血斑（DBS），然后通过Elisa免疫测定法对43名早产儿（胎龄26-28 周）的DBS进行了Elisa免疫测定，评估了A1C水平。我们在小于1 周和4 周的按年龄收集的DBS上测量了A1C 。

结果

与没有ROP的配对婴儿相比，发生NP-ROP的婴儿的HbA1c显着降低，这发生在第4周（p = 0.004），但在第1周没有发现。P-ROP婴儿的HbA1c显着升高，这发生在第1周（p < 0.05）和第4周（p = 0.005）。

结论

修改为与DBS一起使用的A1C测试是可行的ROP生物标志物；低A1C是非增殖性ROP的潜在生物标志物，高A1C是增殖性ROP的潜在生物标志物。