CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1581191
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Concepts, Advances, and Future Trends in Clinical Research on Eye DiseasesView all 54 articles
Pigment Epithelium Detachment with Thickened Choroid in a Preterm Infant at Term-Equivalent Age: A Case Report
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Hanyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States
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Pigment epithelial detachment (PED) is well-documented in adult retinal diseases but is rarely reported in neonates. This case describes a preterm infant, born at 31 weeks, who developed PED with thickened choroid at term-equivalent age, detected using handheld OCT. The PED emerged at 39 weeks postmenstrual age, coinciding with inhaled steroid treatment for respiratory distress, and resolved by 41 weeks after steroid discontinuation without structural damage. The temporal relationship suggests an association between steroid use and PED with choroidal changes. This case highlights the value of OCT in detecting retinal and choroidal abnormalities in preterm infants and underscores the potential impact of systemic conditions and medications on the choroid.
Keywords: Optical Coherence Tomography, Choroid, pigment epithelium detachment, preterm, steroid
Received: 23 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ahn, Tai, Winter, Sarin and Toth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cynthia A Toth, Duke University, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, United States
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