Variations in choroidal thickness between emmetropic and myopic eyes after caffeine intake

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the variations in choroidal thinning between emmetropic and myopic subjects after caffeine intake. Methods: Forty-five healthy participants (age mean ± standard deviation [SD]: 20.75 ± 1.6 years) recruited in a prospective cross-sectional study. They were divided into three groups, based on refractive error status, emmetropes (spherical equivalent [SE] -0.25 to +0.25D), myopes (SE ≥-0.50D to ˂-6.00D), and high myopes (SE ≥-6.00D). The participants underwent choroidal thickness [ChT] measurements using optical coherence tomography [OCT] (Topcon 3D OCT-1 Maestro System) at baseline, 20, 40, and 60 minutes after consuming 200 mg of caffeine. The measurements of ChT were taken from five different areas horizontally. Results: Compared to baseline measurement, the ChT significantly decreased after 200 mg caffeine intake in all conditions (P 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the reduction in ChT due to caffeine consumption is not significantly affected by the refractive status of the eye. Thus, it is safe to hypothesize that the vascular part of the choroid behaves identically to vasoconstrictive in both emmetropic and myopic eyes. The choroidal thinning found in myopic and high myopic eyes and/or the reduced choroidal vascularity index were not apparent in this study. Therefore, further longitudinal studies recruiting greater numbers of participants, including myopes and high myopes, and measuring both vascular and stromal layers to investigate such variations are warranted.

Keywords

• caffeine consumption
• choroid
• choroidal thickness
• myopia