Fernando O Avellis
University Hospital of Parma, Italy
Title: Foveal choroidal thicknesses in strabismic amblyopia
Biography
Biography: Fernando O Avellis
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: Finding new parameters could be important for earlier diagnosis and follow-up of amblyopia, a visual condition that actually seems to have not much objectively measurable prognostic factors. There's a relationship between fixation eccentricity and visual acuity (VA). In recent studies amblyopic eyes compared to normal shown an increase in central choroidal thicknesses measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT). We evaluated through OCT how foveal choroidal thicknesses (CT) correlates with strabismic amblyopia. Methodology: 15 patients (mean age 5.4±1.9) including seven cases with strabismic amblyopia and eight controls with nonstrabismic amblyopia were recruited. Amblyopic eye CT was measured in nine points of the foveal region within a fixed topographic map: in center-fovea (CF) and in four cardinal points respectively at 1.5 mm and at 3 mm from CF. Thicknesses in topographic map was matched within two groups and maximum CT was reported. Three eccentricity patterns based on the distance from CF and maximum CT site were identified: first was in CF, second at 1.5 mm and third at 3 mm from CF. To each amblyopic eye a specific eccentricity pattern was attributed and compared between two groups. Subsequently, affected group eccentricity patterns were matched with the strabismic deviation degree. Finally, amblyopic eyes VA were correlated with the corresponding central CT for both groups. No statistically significant difference between groups was found in 9 CT topographic points. Instead maximum CT eccentricity differed statistically between two groups (p<0.05). No correlation between degree of eccentricity and strabismic deviation was found. Furthermore, there was a weak negative correlation between center-foveal CT and depth of amblyopia as VA in controls. Conclusions: These results suggest correlations between CT and amblyopia degree and probably between eccentricity of maximum foveal CT and VA. Our data encourage looking into analyzed parameters as possible prognostic indicators for antiamblyopic rehabilitation.