Assessment of the macula and choroid in pediatric keratoconus patients

To present choroidal and macular thickness measurements in pediatric patients with keratoconus and to evaluate a possible correlation between anterior and posterior segment parameters.

50 eyes of 50 patients and 50 eyes of 50 age-matched controls were included in this cross-sectional comparative study. The participants underwent ophthalmologic examination including; refraction, visual acuity, biomicroscopy, corneal topography and optical coherence tomography. The choroidal thickness (CT) was measured at subfoveal area and at 500 microns intervals to the nasal and temporal to the fovea up to 1500 microns.

The mean age of the patients and controls were 12.4 ± 1.9 and 12.0 ± 2.1 years. The mean thinnest corneal pachimetry was 456 ± 57 μm, the mean central macular thickness (CMT) was 258 ± 24 μm and the mean subfoveal choroidal thickness was 342 ± 30 μm for the patients. There was no significant difference between the patients and controls in regards of CMT and CT at any measured points (p > 0.05 for all). There was no correlation between anterior segment parameters and CMT. There was no correlation between anterior segment parameters and subfoveal choroidal thickness.

We may conclude that keratoconus does not affect the CMT and CT of pediatric keratoconus patients, and we may propose that we do not need a correction for this group of patients when we need to evaluate the CMT and CT.