Optical coherence tomography(OCT-A) seems promising in diagnosing and understanding the pathogenesis of amblyopia, ideal in children, offering an objective tool on top of visual acuity to guide treatment plans.
A population based cohort study (30 children with amblyopia and 1045 controls) confirms the presence of retinal microvasculature abnormalities in amblyopic eyes, which opens the discussion for retinal involvement in traditionally thought cortical disorder.
The findings of the study were as follows:
- The mean foveal avascular zone (FAZ) circularity was significantly lower in the amblyopic group than in the control group, indicating an irregular shape of the FAZ in the amblyopic eyes.
- Amblyopic eyes had a lower mean fractal dimension (FD) than did control eyes, but with no clinical significance.
- Poorer visual acuity was associated with reduced FAZ circularity and increased vessel diameter index, whereas best corrected visual acuity(BCVA) was not significantly associated with OCT-A metrics.
Amblyopic eyes appear normal on routine examination, but the visual acuity is significantly lower, thus, a diagnosis of exclusion. The new OCT-A findings may be very helpful for the positive diagnosis of amblyopia, potentially saving expensive diagnostic tests (MRI for compressive optic neuropathy).
Read more – https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/933330