Macular thickness and amblyopia

Abstract

Purpose:To compare macular thickness in children with functional amblyopia and those without amblyopia using optical coherence tomography (OCT).Methods:This case-control study was conducted on 93 children aged 3–10 years including 44 cases with unilateral amblyopia and 49 subjects without amblyopia. Amblyopic eyes were considered as the case group and their fellow eyes as internal controls; eyes of non-amblyopic children served as the external control. Macular thickness of all eyes were measured by optical coherence tomography in the center (foveola), 1 mm ring (fovea), and 3 and 6 mm rings and compared.Results:Although macular thickness was generally not different between the study groups, there was a significant difference in central macular thickness between eyes with moderate to severe amblyopia and the external controls (P = 0.037). Foveal thickness difference exceeding 10 microns between fellow eyes was detected in a larger number of amblyopic children as compared to non-amblyopic controls (P = 0.002). Mean foveal thickness was greater in boys (P = 0.037) but there was no significant difference in foveal thickness among various types of refractive errors.Conclusion:Although there was no significant relationship between macular thickness and amblyopia, foveolar thickness in eyes with moderate to severe amblyopia was significantly greater than the external controls. Further studies with more cases of moderate to severe amblyopia are recommended.

Macular Thickness in Moderate to Severe Amblyopia

“…The mean BCVA of the amblyopic eyes was less than that of both internal and external controls, and the BCVA of the internal controls was also less than that of the external control group ( p < 0.001), as seen in our previous study [ 14 ]. This may be due to the existence of subtle variability in visual function in the healthy eye of unilateral amblyopic children.…”

“…In the present study, there was a significant difference in macular retinal thickness at the center and 1-mm ring area in the moderately to severely amblyopic eyes compared to the non-amblyopic controls ( Table 4 ), although this difference was not found in the previous study conducted by the same author on mildly amblyopic children [ 14 ].…”

“…Some authors believe that increased macular retinal thickness could be due to the high refractive errors (>±5.00 diopters [D]) or even artifacts [ 7 ]. In the previous study conducted by the same author, there was no significant difference between the amblyopic cases and their controls regarding macular retinal thickness, which could be due to the inclusion of a high percentage (86%) of mild amblyopic cases [ 14 ].…”

Changes in macular parameters in different types of amblyopia: optical coherence tomography study

“…This might be due to the exclusion of extreme errors or severe amblyopia from the study. This was in agreement with the conclusions of Rajavi et al 54 However, to substantiate these results, a survey with a large sample size will be required including severe amblyopia.…”

CAN Optical Coherence Tomography redefine amblyopia?

“…- Rajavi (2014) showed that the average foveal thickness of children with moderate and severe amblyopia was 10 microns thicker compared with the congener eye or the control group. Also, male patients had a mean macular thickness thicker than female patients and there was no correlation between the types of amblyopia and macular morphology changes [ 12 ];…”