Retrolental Fibroplasia. II. Pathologic correlation
B. J. Kushner, D. Essner, I. J. Cohen and J. T. Flynn
Retinas of 142 eyes from 71 premature infants on whom autopsies had been
done were studied by gross observation and by using PAS-stained whole
mount, trypsin-digest, and conventional histological techniques. With these
techniques, vascular pathologic condition was correlated with fluorescein
angiograms in living infants with acute retrolental fibroplasia. The
specific lesions seen in acute phase were a major arteriovenous shunt in
the eye, microvascular changes including tufting, and obliteration of
capillaries around arteries and veins. Regression occurred by vascular
budding from the anterior edge of the shunt. Observations on
vascularization in the normal indicated a variability of the level of
maturation of the retinal vasculature, only roughly correlated with
gestational age.
