Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Patients with Amblyopia

Ramin Nourinia; Zhale Rajavi; Hamideh Sabbaghi; Kiana Hassanpour; Hamid Ahmadieh; Bahareh Kheiri; Mojtaba Rajabpour

doi:10.1080/09273972.2022.2097705

Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Patients with Amblyopia

Strabismus. 2022 Sep;30(3):132-138. doi: 10.1080/09273972.2022.2097705. Epub 2022 Jul 13.

Authors

Ramin Nourinia¹, Zhale Rajavi^{2

3

4}, Hamideh Sabbaghi^{4

5}, Kiana Hassanpour^{1

3}, Hamid Ahmadieh¹, Bahareh Kheiri¹, Mojtaba Rajabpour⁵

Affiliations

¹ Ophthalmic Research Center, Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran.
² Negah Aref Ophthalmic Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Ophthalmic Epidemiology Research Center, Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Department of Optometry, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 35822401
DOI: 10.1080/09273972.2022.2097705

Abstract

To determine the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) parameters including foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and vessel density (VD) in the amblyopic eyes compared with the fellow sound eyes and the eyes of the non-amblyopic subjects. In this case-control study, a total of 23 eyes from unilateral amblyopic children were included as cases. The sound eye of the amblyopic children was considered as the internal control and the right eyes of the non-amblyopic children were considered as the external control. All participants underwent image recording with OCTA. In the present study, an equal number of 23 unilateral amblyopic eyes and 23 right eyes of non-amblyopic age- and sex-matched children were included as the cases and controls, respectively. The average age of participants in the case and controls were 9.86 ± 3.12 and 8.5 ± 2.35 years, respectively. Twelve patients (52.2%) in the case group and 14 subjects (60.9%) in the control group were female. Whole vascular density of the macula in superficial capillary plexuses (SCP) was significantly lower in the external controls compared with the other studied groups (P = .026). However, the VD of the deep capillary plexuses (DCP) was significantly greater in the external controls than cases and internal controls (P= .029). The average FAZ area was 0.26 ± 0.06 mm² in amblyopic eyes that was significantly higher compared with fellow eyes (0.21 ± 0.07 mm²; P= .022), but it was not different with non-amblyopic eyes (0.22 ± 0.118 mm²). Based on our findings, there were no significant difference in the cases of foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal in both superficial and deep vascular densities among amblyopic and non-amblyopic eyes, whereas deep whole density of the amblyopic eyes showed lower percent compared to non-amblyopic ones that indicates decrease blood supply of the amblyopic eyes in this region. Additionally, FAZ was larger in amblyopic eyes than internal controls.

Keywords: Amblyopia; foveal avascular zone; macular vascular density; optical coherence tomography angiography.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Amblyopia* / diagnostic imaging
Case-Control Studies
Child
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Fluorescein Angiography / methods
Humans
Male
Retinal Vessels / diagnostic imaging
Tomography, Optical Coherence* / methods
Visual Acuity