Risk Factors Of Non-hereditary Congenital Cataract

PurposeCongenital cataract, which is the second cause of blindness in childhood, is defined as the lens opacity occurred within the first year of birth. Its causes are very complex. It is known that about one third of the cases are related to inheritance, one third of the cases are induced by environmental factors, and the reasons for the remaining one third of the cases are not clear. The aim of this study is to understand the risk factors in development of non-inheriditary cataract.MethodsWe collected 72 congenital cataract cases without the family history of congenital cataract at in-patient department of Xijing Hospital from 2005 to 2008. 72 age and gende matched , non cataract cases were obtained from the out-patient department of pediatric.This is a case-control study. 25 candidate factors were surveied with questionaire and analysed with SPSS 13.0 software with single and multiple logistic regression analysis.ResultsLogistic regression analysis showed that the major risk factors for congenital cataract are suffering from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (OR=6.42,95%CI 1.35-30.47), malnutrition during pregnancy (OR = 2.55,95%CI 1.17-5.56), taking medicines during pregnancy (OR = 4.49,95%CI 1.74-11.55) and having oxygen therapy (OR = 5.63,95%CI 1.45-21.84).ConclusionFrom our present study we concluded that malnutrition and taking medicines during pregnancy and having oxygen therapy after birth are the risk factors for congenital cataract.This is coinsistant with the previous studies. To our knowledge, it is the first time to report that hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is a risk factor for congenital cataract. This gives us the clues to prevent the non-heritarty congenitl catatract.