Cross-sectional study of macular thickness variations in unilateral amblyopia

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the mean macular thickness between normal and amblyopic eyes in unilateral strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia. Materials and Methods: A spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (Carl Zeiss Meditech, Inc.) was used to evaluate 51 patients (mean age 11.63 ± 2.84 years) with unilateral strabismic (n = 29) and anisometropic (n = 22) amblyopia. Data between the two eyes were compared using a paired t-test and a P value <0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Mean best-corrected visual acuity was +0.53 LogMAR (range 0.2-1.0) in the amblyopic eye. Mean macular thickness in the amblyopic eyes was 277.5 μ ± 15.3 and in the fellow normal eyes was 272.4 μ ± 13.1 (P < 0.05). On subgroup analysis, the difference was statistically significant in strabismic (P = 0.01) and not significant in anisometropic amblyopia (P = 0.08). Conclusion: The mean macular thickness was greater in amblyopic eyes as compared to the normal fellow eyes, and this difference was significant in strabismic amblyopia, but not significant in anisometric amblyopia.

Keywords

• Amblyopia
• anisometropia
• macular thickness
• optic coherence tomography
• strabismus