Assessment of Retinal and Choroidal Measurements in Chinese School-Age Children with Cirrus-HD Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

PurposeTo evaluate retinal thickness (RT), retinal volume (RV) and choroidal thickness (ChT) in Chinese children using Cirrus-HD optical coherence tomography (OCT), and assess their associations with spherical equivalent (SE), age and gender.MethodsThis was a prospective study that recruited 193 healthy Chinese children (193 eyes) with no ophthalmic disease history between December 2012 and December 2013. RT and RV were acquired using OCT. Subfoveal ChT (SFCT) and ChT1-mm and 2-mm temporal, nasal, superior and inferior to the fovea were measured manually.ResultsRT in the inner temporal and nasal regionsdiffered significantly between refraction groups (both P<0.05). Significant differences were also found inSFCT andChT 1- and 2-mm inferior to the fovea (all P<0.05). RT differed significantly between males and females in the outer superior region in the emmetropia group (P<0.05). ChT differed significantly between males and females 2-mm temporal to the fovea in the emmetropia group (P<0.05), and 1-mm temporal to the fovea in the mild myopia group (P<0.05). SE correlated positively with RT in the inner temporal (r = 0.230),nasal (r = 0.252) and inferior (r = 0.149) regions (all P<0.05). Age correlated positively with foveolar (r = 0.169), total macular (r = 0.202), inner temporal (r = 0.237), inner nasal (r = 0.248), inner superior (r = 0.378) and inner inferior (r = 0.345) region thicknesses, and with RV (r = 0.207)(all P<0.05). SE correlated positively with SFCT (r = 0.195), and with ChT1-mm temporal (r = 0.167), 1- and 2-mm nasal (r = 0.144 and r = 0.162), 2-mm superior (r = 0.175), and 1- and 2-mm inferior (r = 0.207 and r = 0.238) to the fovea (all P<0.05). Age had no significant association with ChT.ConclusionsSE, age and gender did not influence macular RT and ChT in most regions, and correlations of RT with age and ChT with SE were weak.

Choroidal Thickness in Chinese Children Aged 8 to 11 Years with Mild and Moderate Myopia

“…The SFCT of Chinese children aged from 8 to 11 years was 262.00 ± 40.57 µ m in the mild myopia group and 236.00 ± 55.08 µ m in the moderate myopia group. The mean SFCT of Chinese children had been reported ranging from 245 ± 66 μ m to 302 ± 63 μ m depending on different age and refractive error range [ 10 – 12 , 23 ]. The SFCT of the mild myopia group in this research was consistent with a previous study of Chinese children, but SFCT of the moderate myopia group was thinner than that in the study [ 12 ].…”

“…Other researches concerned of children population found that the thickest locations of choroid were not subfoveal both in myopic and nonmyopic children [ 8 , 20 ]. In the studies of Chinese children, the thickest choroid were located similarly in myopic and nonmyopic participants, either temporal to the fovea [ 10 , 11 , 23 ] or subfoveal [ 12 ], even in the study of relatively large range of refractive error (−11.38 to +8.38 D) [ 10 ]. In this study, the topographic distributions of macular choroidal thickness in mild and moderate myopia children aged 8∼11 years were similar.…”

“…It enabled us to investigate the variation trend of choroidal thickness in the macular region thoroughly. The topographic distribution of macular choroidal thickness could not be detected if the measured locations were only horizontal [ 9 ], or not far from fovea enough [ 12 ], or only a few points [ 22 ].…”

“…The correlation of the choroidal thickness with refractive error was not significant when the spherical equivalent was −0.43 ± 1.42 D (range, −4.00 D to +2.25 D) [ 8 ]. In the multipoint measurement of choroidal thickness, none of the choroidal thickness displayed a significant correlation with age when the age of study population was 11.5 ± 1.7 years (range, 7 to 15 years) [ 12 ]. In the study of high myopia, axial length was not related statistically to choroidal thickness in the control group when the refractive error was −0.3 ± 1.8 D (range, −6 D to +6 D) [ 6 ].…”

Longitudinal changes in macular retinal layer thickness in pediatric populations: Myopic vs non-myopic eyes

“…These studies have shown some subtle differences in macular retinal morphology in childhood associated with myopia, with a small magnitude (most studies report an average difference in thickness between myopic and emmetropic children of <10 μm) thinning of the retina in parafoveal and/or perifoveal retinal regions being a typical finding [14,19]. One recent study using long wavelength swept source OCT also examined the impact of myopia upon macular ganglion cell layer (GCL) and retinal nerve fibre layer (NFL) thickness and found myopic children exhibited a significantly thinner perifoveal GCL, but no significant difference in the NFL thickness associated with myopia [19].…”