ROPScore is a free tool consisting of a logistic regression equation to calculate the risk per child and calculated one time per infant at six weeks of life. It helps to predict severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). This study aimed to evaluate whether ROPS can be useful to predict severe ROP in a population of premature infants in Argentina. The setting was a single centre public tertiary referral hospital. Over 2012-18, 2894 infants were examined; 26% had birth weight of ≤1500g or gestational age of ≤32 weeks. Inclusion criteria were met by 411 infants; 139 with some form of ROP, 25 with severe forms, and three aggressive. ROPS was first applied with a cut-off score of 11 for any ROP and 14.5 for severe ROP. This was found to miss 28% of severe cases. The cut-off was recalculated to 9.15 for any ROP and 12.05 for severe, producing 100% sensitivity for any or severe ROP. The authors acknowledge this being a retrospective study so cannot consider confounding factors or control groups. However, they conclude ROPS is simple and easy to use and is therefore a promising tool. This warrants further prospective studies.
