Analysis of Choroidal Thickness in Children with Congenital Aniridia

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To evaluate the choroidal thickness (CT) in children with congenital aniridia in comparison with age-matched controls.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational study that included 64 eyes of 32 children with congenital aniridia (aged 5–12 years) and 80 eyes of 40 healthy subjects who were age-matched. In all subjects, subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) was assessed at 750-μm intervals from the fovea to 1.5 mm in the temporal and nasal directions with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).

Results: The mean SFCT was 207.67 ± 30.99 µm in the aniridic eyes. This SFCT was significantly thinner than that in control eyes (288.55 ± 30.06 µm) (P < .001). The SFCTs at 1.5 mm and 0.75 mm intervals in the temporal and nasal directions from the fovea were also significantly thinner in eyes with aniridia than control eyes (P < .001).There was a significant negative correlation between the SFCT and axial length in eyes with aniridia (B = −10.60, 95%CI = −19.31~-1.89, P = .017).

Conclusions: The subfoveal and parafoveal CTs were significantly thinner in eyes with congenital aniridia than in control eyes. These choroidal changes could open up a new way for the research related to the pathophysiology of congenital aniridia.

KEYWORDS:

• Congenital aniridia
• choroidal thickness
• optical coherence tomography (OCT)

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article. All authors state that none of the authors has proprietary interest in any subject mentioned in this study. No relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81970813, 81770967, 91546101), the Fund for the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2018A030313635), Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project (201904010062), the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC0116500) and the Clinical Research and Translational Medical Center of Pediatric Cataract in Guangzhou City (201505032017516).