Short term effect of DOT spectacle lenses on choroidal thickness in emmetropic children

Abstract

Purpose : To investigate regional changes in choroidal thickness (ChT) following short-term wear of Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) spectacle lenses, designed to control myopia by lowering retinal contrast.

Methods : Emmetropic children (SER +1.00 to -0.75 D) aged 8 to 14 years wore plano DOT spectacle lenses without central apertures and +3.00D spectacle lenses in a two-visit, prospective, randomized, subject-masked crossover study. High-resolution OCT (Triton DRI-OCT, Topcon) evaluated central, parafoveal (3 mm from the fovea) and perifoveal (6 mm from the fovea) ChT after 0, 30 and 60 minutes of viewing a high contrast video at each visit.

Results : A total of 30 participants (17F, 13M) with a mean (± SD) age of 10.9 (1.7) years completed the study. After 30 minutes of spectacle lens wear, a significant increase in ChT was observed with DOT spectacle lenses compared to +3.00D spectacle lenses in 4 of the 9 macula regions evaluated (p<0.05 for all). DOT spectacles showed a significant ChT thickening in the central (+7.69 ± 4.19 µm), parafoveal regions at nasal (+9.01 ± 2.77 µm) and temporal (+6.20 ± 5.46 µm) and inferior perifoveal (+9.79 ± 2.31 µm) compared to myopic defocus with +3.00D lenses. After 60 minutes, ChT remained higher only in the inferior parafoveal region (+3.96 ± 8.33 µm, p=0.03), while all other regions returned to baseline levels.

Conclusions : After short-term DOT spectacle lens wear, emmetropic children experienced macula ChT thickening, similar or greater than the response observed with +3.00D spectacle lens wear. These results indicate the choroid is able to respond to contrast reduction. Further research is required to investigate the long-term impact of contrast modulation on ChT.

This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.