Importance: While oral vitamin A supplementation is considered to potentially slow loss of retinal function in adults with retinitis pigmentosa and normal liver function, little data from children with this disease are available.
Objective: To compare disease courses in children with retinitis pigmentosa taking or not taking vitamin A supplementation.
Design, setting, and participants: Retrospective, nonrandomized comparison of vitamin A and control cohorts followed up for a mean of 4 to 5 years by the Electroretinography Service of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. The study included children with different genetic types of typical retinitis pigmentosa: 55 taking vitamin A and 25 not taking vitamin A. The dates for patient evaluations ranged from June 1976 to July 2016, and the data analysis occurred in October 2016.
Interventions: Age-adjusted dose of oral vitamin A palmitate (≤15 000 IU/d).
Main outcomes and measures: Mean exponential rates of change of full-field cone electroretinogram amplitude to 30-Hz flashes estimated by repeated-measures longitudinal regression without and with adjusting for potential confounders.
Results: Of the 55 children in the vitamin A cohort, 38 (69%) were male; the mean [SD] age was 9.1 [1.9] years; and 48 (87%) were white , 6 (11%) were Asian, and 1 (2%) was black. Of the 25 members of the control cohort, 19 (76%) were male; the mean [SD] age was 9.2 [1.7] years; and 25 (100%) were white. The estimated mean rates of change with the unadjusted model were -0.0713 loge unit/y (-6.9% per year) for the vitamin A cohort and -0.1419 loge unit per year (-13.2% per year) for the control cohort (difference, 0.0706 loge unit per year; 95% CI for the difference, 0.0149-0.1263 loge unit per year; P = .01). The adjusted model confirmed a slower mean rate of decline in the vitamin A cohort (difference, 0.0771 loge-unit per year; 95% CI for the difference, 0.0191-0.1350 loge-unit per year; P = .009). With respect to ocular safety, 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° or less or a visual acuity of 20/200 or less in at least 1 eye did not differ by cohort.
Conclusions and relevance: A vitamin A palmitate supplement was associated with a slower loss of cone electroretinogram amplitude in children with retinitis pigmentosa. Although the relatively small-sample, retrospective, nonrandomized design does not allow a test of causation and is subject to possible biases, these findings support consideration of an age-adjusted dose of vitamin A in the management of most children with the common forms of retinitis pigmentosa.