Effect of Amblyopia Treatment on Choroidal Thickness in Children with Hyperopic Anisometropic Amblyopia

To evaluate choroidal thickness (CT) in the eyes of children with hyperopic anisometropic amblyopia and to assess changes in CT during amblyopia treatment using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).

This longitudinal study, initially enrolled 40 patients, aged 3-9 years with hyperopic anisometropic amblyopia. Patients underwent treatment with refractive correction alone for 16 weeks and if needed, with refractive correction and patching treatment thereafter (6 months). CT was measured perpendicularly (from the outer edge of the hyper-reflective retinal pigment epithelium to the inner sclera) at the fovea, and 1.5-mm temporal, 3.0-mm temporal, 1.5-mm nasal, and 3.0-mm nasal to the fovea using SD-OCT in amblyopic eyes and fellow eyes during treatment and in the control subjects (n = 22).

The baseline subfoveal CT measurement was mean 367.9 ± 54 in the amblyopic eyes, 283.9 ± 39.6 in the fellow eyes, and 267.3 ± 41.3 µm in the control eyes. Before amblyopia treatment, the subfoveal CT and CT at 1.5-mm nasal and temporal to the fovea and 3.0-mm nasal to fovea in the amblyopic eyes were significantly thicker than those of the control subjects after adjustment for refraction and axial length by multivariate ANCOVA. CT at all locations decreased significantly after treatment in the amblyopic eyes. The final measurement of subfoveal choroid and CT at 1.5-mm nasal to the fovea of the amblyopic eyes was significantly thicker than those of the control subjects after adjusting for axial length and refraction.

The findings of this study indicate that children with hyperopic anisometropic amblyopia have significant CT alterations, and these changes partially regress after amblyopia treatment.