Electronic medical records driven big data analytics in retinal diseases, report number 1: non-oncological retinal diseases in children and adolescents in India.

PURPOSE: To describe the spectrum and demographic distribution of non-oncological retinal diseases in children and adolescents presenting to a multi-tier ophthalmic hospital network in India. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional hospital-based retrospective study over nine years (March 2011-March 2020) from a pyramidal eye care network in India. The analysis included 477,954 new patients (0-21 years), collected from an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coded electronic medical record (EMR) system. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of retinal disease (non-oncological) in at least one eye were included. Age-wise distribution of these diseases in children and adolescents was analysed. RESULTS: In the study, 8.44% (n = 40,341) of new patients were diagnosed with non-oncological retinal pathology in at least one eye. The age group-specific distribution of retinal diseases was 47.4%, 11. 8%, 5.9%, 5.9%, 6.4%, 7.6% in infants (< 1 year), toddlers (1-2 years), early childhood (3-5 years), middle childhood (6-11 years), early adolescents (12-18 years) and late adolescents (18-21 years), respectively. 60% were male, and 70% had bilateral disease. The mean age was 9.46 ± 7.52 years. The common retinal disorders were retinopathy of prematurity (ROP, 30.5%), retinal dystrophy (19.5%; most commonly, retinitis pigmentosa), and retinal detachment (16.4%). Four-fifth of the eyes had moderate to severe visual impairment. Nearly one-sixth of patients needed low vision and rehabilitative services, and about 1 in 10 patients required surgical intervention (n = 5960, 8.6%). CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: About 1 in 10 children and adolescents seeking eye care in our cohort had non-oncological retinal diseases; the common ones were ROP (in infants) and retinitis pigmentosa (in adolescents). This information would help future strategic planning of eye health care in the institution in pediatric and adolescent age groups.

Imaging the pediatric retina: An overview.

Recent decade has seen a shift in the causes of childhood blinding diseases from anterior segment to retinal disease in both developed and developing countries. The common retinal disorders are retinopathy of prematurity and vitreoretinal infections in neonates, congenital anomalies in infants, and vascular retinopathies including type 1 diabetes, tumors, and inherited retinal diseases in children (up to 12 years). Retinal imaging helps in diagnosis, management, follow up and prognostication in all these disorders. These imaging modalities include fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, ultrasonography, retinal vascular and structural studies, and electrodiagnosis. Over the decades there has been tremendous advances both in design (compact, multifunctional, tele-consult capable) and technology (wide- and ultra-wide field and noninvasive retinal angiography). These new advances have application in most of the pediatric retinal diseases though at most times the designs of new devices have remained confined to use in adults. Poor patient cooperation and insufficient attention span in children demand careful crafting of the devices. The newer attempts of hand-held retinal diagnostic devices are welcome additions in this direction. While much has been done, there is still much to do in the coming years. One of the compelling and immediate needs is the pediatric version of optical coherence tomography angiography. These needs and demands would increase many folds in future. A sound policy could be the simultaneous development of adult and pediatric version of all ophthalmic diagnostic devices, coupled with capacity building of trained medical personnel.