Gabriel Kaufmann, MD
Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
For the past 11 years, the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) has given the ASRS Presidents’ Young Investigator Award in order to “honor past presidents of our Society by nurturing the development of next-generation retina leaders,” recognizing an investigator under the age of 50 “who has made substantial contributions to the field of retina that will potentially improve our patients’ lives.”
This year, the 11th annual Presidents’ Young Investigator Award was presented to J. Peter Campbell, MD, MPH, FASRS. Dr. Campbell is the Edwin and Josephine Knowles Professor of Ophthalmology at the Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), in Portland, Oregon. In recognizing Dr. Campbell with this award, the ASRS recognized the importance and promise of his translational research in the areas of OCT imaging in pediatric retina and the development of artificial intelligence algorithms for retinopathy of prematurity.
At this year’s meeting, as part of the first Retinal Vascular Disease Symposium, Dr. Campbell gave the Young Investigator Award Lecture on “Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Eyes With Popcorn Neovascularization in Retinopathy of Prematurity Observed Using Ultra-Widefield Optical Coherence Tomography.” He discussed OCT imaging of isolated retinal neovascularization (IRNV, or “popcorn neovascularization”) as a potential prognostic factor in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Given that the scientific literature has reported conflicting significance of these lesions regarding risk of progression vs. regression of disease, Dr. Campbell’s work examined ultra widefield OCT (UWF-OCT), which utilizes a 140 degree visual angle, to determine clinical association of eyes with IRNV and prognostic significance of these lesions. All 136 included patients were at least stage 2 ROP by clinical diagnosis on manual review and were provided with a clinician-assigned vascular severity score.
On cross-sectional analysis, eyes that developed IRNV were more likely to be from patients with lower birth weight and gestational age and to present with more posterior lesions (zone 1 ROP); independently, IRNV was found to be a risk factor for progression from stage 2 to stage 3 ROP. Eyes with IRNV also had higher vascular severity score on logistic regression.
After the talk, the discussion centered on if IRNV, or popcorn neovascularization, should be considered an intermediate stage of ROP, such as a “Stage 2.5,” or be classified as part of an early stage 3; the debate remains whether these lesions are a crucial part of staging or an independent prognostic factor. Additionally, audience members wondered if this research should influence management of these patients’ eyes; Dr. Campbell emphasized following the existing clinical trial data and potentially using this new knowledge to capture a critical period of progression. Ultimately, while more work remains to be performed in this area, Dr. Campbell’s work over his career thus far has significantly advanced our knowledge of pediatric imaging and ROP. So, it is no surprise he was recognized by the ASRS with the prestigious Young Investigator Award this year in Stockholm.
