Clinical Study Association of Maternal Age to Development and Progression of Retinopathy of Prematurity in Infants of Gestational Age under 33 Weeks Atsuro Uchida, 1 Masayuki Miwa, 2 Hajime Shinoda, 1 Takashi Koto, 1 Norihiro Nagai, 1 Hiroshi Mochimaru, 1 Yohei Tomita, 1 Mariko Sasaki, 1 Kazushige Ikeda, 2 Kazuo Tsubota, 1 and Yoko Ozawa 1 1 Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan 2 Department of Pediatrics, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan Correspondence should be addressed to Yoko Ozawa; ozawa@a5.keio.jp Received 15 February 2014; Accepted 13 April 2014; Published 30 April 2014 Academic Editor: Lawrence S. Morse Copyright © 2014 Atsuro Uchida et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aim. To fnd predictive and indicative markers of risk for development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and its progression to the stage requiring laser treatment, in premature infants whose gestational age (GA) was under 33 weeks. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 197 premature infants born in 2005–2010 whose GA < 33 weeks and underwent eye screening at Keio University Hospital. Te association between candidate risk factors and development or progression of ROP was assessed. Results. Among the 182 eligible infants (median GA, 29.1 weeks; median birth weight (BW), 1028 g), 84 (46%) developed any stage of ROP, of which 45 (25%) required laser treatment. Multivariate analysis using a stepwise method showed that GA ( = 0.002; 95% confdence interval (CI), 0.508–0.858), BW ( < 0.001; 95% CI, 0.994–0.998), and lower maternal age ( = 0.032; 95% CI, 0.819–0.991) were the risk factors for ROP development and GA ( < 0.001; 95% CI, 0.387–0.609) and lower maternal age ( = 0.012; 95% CI, 0.795–0.973) were for laser treatment. Te odds ratio of requiring laser treatment was 3.3 when the maternal age was <33 years. Conclusion. ROP was more likely to be developed and progressed in infants born from younger mother and low GA. 1. Introduction Recent progress in biotechnology and medical care has increased the number of surviving preterm newborns world- wide [1, 2]. Advances in perinatal medical care have increased the survival rate of infants delivered prematurely; more than 80% of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants survive in deve- loped countries [3, 4]. Tese preterm infants, however, are a vulnerable population, at high risk for developmental dis- orders in multiple organs. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a frequent disorder in these survivors. ROP has been associated with excessive oxygen use shortly afer birth. ROP develops in two phases [5–8]. Phase I is a vasoobliteration phase, resulting from the relatively hyperoxic environment induced by oxygen supplementa- tion therapy. Tis condition suppresses vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), thereby inhibiting normal retinal growth and promoting capillary obliteration. During phase II, the cessation of oxygen supplementation therapy causes relatively hypoxic conditions in the retina, which dramati- cally induces VEGF, resulting in abnormal neovasculariza- tion. Today, oxygen supplementation is monitored to avoid excessive administration; however, ROP continues to be an important cause of preventable blindness. It is estimated that over 50,000 children per year worldwide still become blind or are visually impaired due to ROP [1]. Appropriately timed laser treatment is the main thera- peutic approach for preventing blindness in these infants, although clinical trials also support the use of anti-VEGF drugs to regress ROP [9]. With any method, the treatment should be performed at the most appropriate disease stage. To improve their prognosis, we sought to identify infants who Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Ophthalmology Volume 2014, Article ID 187929, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/187929