Ryan Ori, Contributor

Newborns are at risk for blindness. Children's Hospital of Illinois now has a high-tech eye on those babies. The hospital, located at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill., owns one of 400 RetCam imaging systems in the world and one of only nine in the state.

"This is a tremendous asset to the community," said Dr. Steve Lichtenstein of Illinois Eye Center.

RetCam, sold by Clarity Medical Systems Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., is the latest technology to help detect retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP. Because preterm babies' retinas aren't fully developed, they are at risk for ROP.

"(Premature) babies actually stop growing with the delivery process," said Theresa Lanier, one of three Children's Hospital nurses trained to use the RetCam. "They kind of restart growing like 4-6 weeks later. Then, they grow really rapidly. It's like they're trying to make up for that time that they weren'tgrowing. Because they're growing so rapidly, blood vessels just proliferate in that area and put tension on the eye. That's when we really have to watch them, during that rapid growth phase."

If vessels grow too rapidly, the retina can detach. The result is irreversible blindness.

It's permanent

"It's not a lot," Lichtenstein said of the frequency of blindness. "The problem is, it's permanent. Once the child is blind, the child is blind."

The first of three RetCam models was sold starting in 1997. The RetCam II model has been used in Peoria since January, a month after Children's Hospital spent about $90,000 for the computerised system and accompanying hand-held camera. The fibre-optic camera provides real-time images and still photos.

Lichtenstein, former chairman of the American Academy of Paediatricians Section on Ophthalmology, estimates about 15 per cent of newborn babies will require laser surgery or more complicated eye surgery.

The latest guidelines from paediatric and ophthalmology experts call for all babies born at 30 weeks or sooner or weighing less than 1,500 grams (a little more than 3.3 pounds) to be tested for ROP.

Children's Hospital has tested about 100 newborns using the new system. Lichtenstein and four other ophthalmologists - Illinois Eye Center partners Jean Vahey and Pete Lagouros, plus Kamal Kishore and Chittaranaja Reddy - rotate viewing newborns' eyes utilising the RetCam II.

Visit Copley News Service at www.copleynews.com.