Prorenin Levels in Retinopathy of Prematurity

To evaluate serum prorenin levels in preterm infants with or without retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).Noncomparative retrospective case control study.Serum prorenin levels in children with a gestational age younger than 36 weeks were measured with antibody-activating direct enzyme kinetic assay.The mean prorenin concentrations were higher in preterm infants with ROP than in infants without ROP at every time point: from 26 to 30 weeks, 2326 +/- 334 microg/ml (mean +/- SE [standard error]) (n = 3) and 1164 +/- 234 microg/ml (n = 3), respectively (P.05); from 31 to 35 weeks, 1760 +/- 496 microg/ml (n = 10) and 957.1 +/- 139 microg/ml (n = 25) (P.05); from 36 to 40 weeks, 958.2 +/- 194.2 microg/ml (n = 23) and 470.1 +/- 32.6 microg/ml (n = 67) (P.01); and from 41 to 45 weeks, 575.8 +/- 148.4 (n = 9) and 385.6 +/- 47.9 (n = 13), which is not significantly different.Prorenin levels in preterm infants can predict which infants will develop ROP.