Choroidal Thickness in Patients with a History of Retinopathy of Prematurity

Abstract

Purpose: To examine choroidal thickness by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) inchildren with a history of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and to access the impact of choroidal thickness on patients’ visual acuity.

Methods: This was designed as a prospective case-controlled study. Children aged 6 to 14 years were classified into the following 4 groups: patients with a history of threshold ROP and the treatment of laser or cryo-therapy (group 1); those with regressed ROP who had not receivedany treatment (group 2); those born prematurely but without ROP (group 3); and normal full-term children (group 4). All of the patients had normal-appearing posterior pole. Main outcome measures included best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optical components, and OCT findings.

Results: In total, 138 patients were enrolled in the study. Patients in group 1 had a significantly thinner choroidal thickness than the patients in group 2. Choroidal thickness was found to be positively associated with spherical power and spherical equivalent and negatively associated with foveal thickness, axial length, and vitreous depth. When only patients with choroidal thickness less than 237.4 µm were analyzed, macular choroidal thickness was negatively associated with BCVA of the patients. Choroidal thickness had less predictive power on patients’ vision than gestation age and birth weight.

Conclusions: Choroidal thickness is thinner in patients with threshold ROP. Only when choroidal thickness is less than a certain level, 237.4 µm in the current study, that it is significantly associated with worse vision of the patients. Above this level, there is no significant impact on the patient’s vision.

Keywords: 706 retinopathy of prematurity • 452 choroid