Sir,
We appreciate the comments made by Dr David TL Liu.
The diagnosis of familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) in our study followed the precedent report by Akabane et al, 1 in which it was based on abnormal straightening of the retinal vessels, no history of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), peripheral areas of retinal nonperfusion, and either present or absent of family history. FEVR is genetically heterogeneous. It is not always an autosomal dominant disorder and sporadic cases without family history have been described.2 Many individuals have asymptomatic abnormal vascular hypermeability, demonstrable only by fluorescein angiography. It is likely that the frequency has been underestimated. Based on similar diagnostic criteria, FEVR composed 12–16%1, 3 of cases of juvenile rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in Japanese population, which are comparable to our report.
As we stated in the Patients and methods section, we excluded rhegmatogenous retinal detachments secondary to ROP from our study. We intended to state that not only retinal detachment due to acute ROP but also ROP-related detachments in school-aged children were also excluded. Therefore, no ROP-related detachment was included in the myopic patients in our study.
References
Akabane N, Yamamoto S, Tsukahara I, Ishida M, Mitamura Y, Yamamoto T et al. Surgical outcomes in juvenile retinal detachment. Jpn J Ophthalmol. 2001; 45: 409–411.
Miyakubo H, Hashimoto K, Miyakubo S . Retinal vascular pattern in familial exudative vitreoretinopathy. Ophthalmology 1984; 91: 1524–1530.
Miyakubo H, Inohara N, Hashimoto K . Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy and its relationship with juvenile retinal detachment. In: Henkind P (ed). Acta: XXIV International Congress of Ophthalmology. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1983 pp 500–504.
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Minamoto, A., Yokoyama, T. Reply to DTL Liu et al. Eye 20, 248–249 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.eye.6701823
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.eye.6701823