Vitamin A appears helpful in pediatric retinitis pigmentosa

(HealthDay)—For children with retinitis pigmentosa, vitamin A supplementation is associated with slower loss of cone electroretinogram amplitude, according to a study published online March 29 in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Eliot L. Berson, M.D., from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues conducted a nonrandomized comparison study involving children with retinitis pigmentosa taking or not taking vitamin A supplementation (55 and 25, respectively). The main outcome was the mean exponential rates of change of full-field cone electroretinogram amplitude to 30-Hz flashes.

The researchers found that in the unadjusted model, the estimated mean rates of change were −0.0713 log_e unit/year for the vitamin A cohort and −0.1419 log_e unit per year for the control cohort (−6.9 and −13.2 percent per year, respectively). A slower mean rate of decline was confirmed in the vitamin A cohort in the adjusted model (difference, 0.0771 log_e-unit per year). There was no difference by cohort in the mean exponential rates of change of visual field area and visual acuity and the incidences of falling to a visual field diameter of 20 degrees or less or a visual acuity of 20/200 or less in at least one eye.

"A vitamin A palmitate supplement was associated with a slower loss of cone electroretinogram amplitude in children with retinitis pigmentosa," the authors write.

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