AIM: To analyze the association between postnatal weight growth rate(PWGR)and the threshold disease of retinopathy of prematurity(TDROP)in preterm babies with very low birth weight(BW), and investigate the predictive ability of PWGR for the onset of TDROP.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort study. Totally 386 preterm infants in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University from January 2017 to December 2018, whose weight was less than 1 500g were enrolled in this study. The gender, BW, gestational age(GA), delivery mode, history of oxygen, Apgar score in 1-10min, in vitro fertilization infants, embryo number, neonatal pneumonia, PWGR with 4wk after birth, congenital heart disease were analyzed. The patients were divided into two groups: Non-ROP(NROP)group(n=298)and TDROP group(n=88). Multiple Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve were used to determine if the PWGR was independently related to TDROP development and if it was capable of predicting TDROP. This study determines the predict value by comparing the area under the ROC curve(AUC)of independent risk factors.

RESULTS: BW(t=2.264, P=0.024), GA(t=3.158, P=0.002), PWGR at 2wk(χ²=20.514, P<0.001), history of oxygen(χ²=20.514, P<0.001), had significant difference between two groups. Multiple Logistic regression analysis revealed that BW(β=0.699, P=0.016), GA(β= -0.631, P=0.039), PWGR at 2wk(β=-0.636, P=0.039), history of oxygen(β=-1.542, P<0.001)were correlated to TDROP, and their OR were 2.013 \〖95% CI: 1.140-3.553\〗, 0.532 \〖95% CI: 0.292-0.970\〗, 0.529 \〖95% CI: 0.289-0.969\〗, 0.214, \〖95% CI: 0.113-0.404\〗 respectively. Further study showed that the area of PWGF at 2wk under the ROC was 71%, and its optimal cut-off points was 4.14g/d, its sensitivity and specificity were 70.8%, 65.9% respectively.

CONCLUSION: BW and PWGF at 2wk of very low BW preterm babies is an independent risk factor for TDROP, and has certain predictive value for the onset of TDROP.