To avoid the related risks of indocyanine green and fundus fluorescein angiography, Angio-OCT had often been applied in many reports of children with its noninvasive advantage. We deduced that Angio-OCT could be an effective manner to supervise the microstructural vessel supply in amblyopia pediatric patients.
Though the histopathological evaluation revealed notable cells’ shrinkage and decreased cell sizes in amblyopic eyes, its pathophysiology had not been fully defined. It was considered that the duration of anisometropia was more important than that of strabismus in the development and depth of amblyopia [17]. Anisometropia pediatric patients tended to have more severe amblyopia than strabismus ones [10]. Many researchers had confirmed that the choroidal thickness (CT) in amblyopic eyes was thicker than in the fellow eyes and the normal controls, which was consistent with our results [10]. The choroid provided nutrients to the retinal outer part and blood supply to the optic nerve, which accounted for the majority of the ocular blood flow. In response to adjust the retinal position and promote visual development, the choroid thicknesses became thinner. Studies had shown the choroid played a role in emmetropization and refractive error development [18, 19]. However, this choroidal compensation did not occur in amblyopic eyes [10].
Histologically, SCPL, intermediate capillary plexus layer (ICPL), DCPL and radial peripapillary capillaries layer (RPCL) composed the retinal vascular network. The layers of retinal vasculature occupied and supplied nutrients to the inner half region only. The layers of choriocapillary maintained and provided the outer retina as the primary blood supply source for the photoreceptors. In the macular region, both at the levels of SCPL and DCPL sharply demarcated a ring of FAZ. In the peripapillary region, RPC supply the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). The microvessel changes in the parafoveal/ peripapillary areas may represent the variation that the amblyopic eyes suffered. Recently, after studied 14 amblyopes aged 6 to 12 years, Kaur, S et al found that the VD in choriocapillary attenuated in the amblyopic eye which suggested that the choriocapillary may involve in the amblyopia pathogenesis [20].
Contrast to the choroid, researchers found that amblyopia did not affect retinal thickness [21]. However, fundamental neurological studies showed that the amblyopia development was associated with the variation in retinal microcirculation and function, and these were supported by clinical research [22]. In accordance with many researchers, we found the Angio-OCT indices in the SCPL/DCPL of the parafoveal areas were decreased in amblyopic eyes compared with fellow emmetropia eyes [23–25]. Yilmaz and colleagues hypothesized that the underuse of the amblyopic eyes may induce these retinal or choroid microvasculature alterations [24]. The FAZ, which was sharply surrounded by a capillaries ring demarcating the avascular area, presented both at the levels of SCPL and DCPL in the macular region. We found that the FAZ in the anisometropia amblyopic eyes at the level of SCPL/DCPL were larger than the fellow eyes, which was similarly to Yilmaz’s research. Nevertheless, the results had no statistically significant difference. However, Isa Sobral et al. documented a marginally statistically significant increase in FAZ of DCPL in amblyopic eyes compared with control eyes [25]. Differently, Araki, S and partners’ research showed no significant difference in the macular VD but smaller FAZ area of SCPL was found in the amblyopic eye after magnification error correction [26]. We analyzed that the inconsistence may due to the amblyopic classification and degree, as many previous reports enrolled both the anisometropia and the strabismus amblyopic patients or only with the strabismus amblyopic children. Besides, the small sample and the age of the participants also may lead to the inconsistent. Furthermore, the difference of built-in software algorithm in Angio-OCT should be considered.
Of note, though without significant difference, we observed the vascular perfusion in the parafoveal region and the peripapillary region and found that the vascular indices were decreased in the amblyopic eyes both on the SCPL and DCPL level. Besides, no obvious decrease in the parafoveal and peripapillary regions was observed in four quadrants analyses of the amblyopic eyes (p > 0.05). Until now, we have a small age span range (4–7 years old) and we aim to minimize the age influence on our results. The vessel density parameters reflected the vessel dimension and vascular supply changes at different regions in the fundus. Previous reports showed discrepancy of opinions on the microvascular structure and function. Sobral, I., et al. pointed that not only the microvascular structure changed, but also function dependent parameters were influenced in the macula and the optic nerve in amblyopic children [25]. Unlikely, Cinar E hold the viewpoint that no significant vascular damage was demonstrated by Angio-OCT in amblyopic eyes, which was similar with our results. Although without the statistical difference in our results, we supposed that minor vascular perfusion affected by amblyopia may correlate with macular and the optic disk blood supply. However, how these changes occur and its specific mechanisms are needed to evaluate in future study. Yet, Cinar E indicated specific localized vascular defects were related to amblyopia and pointed that parameters in superior quadrant were lower in amblyopic eyes, which were inconsistent with our findings [27]. We speculate that the inconsistencies between our analysis and the literature may be related to the age distribution of the patients as well as the duration and severity of amblyopia.
There still were some limitations in our present study. We did not categorize subjects by amblyopia severity degree. All the amblyopic children had already undergone occlusion or atropine therapy; however, we did not document the treatment progress. It is believed that CT varied in healthy eyes according to sex, axial length, age and has a diurnal variation. We measured the CT at the same period in the day, without considering other influences. Sobral et al hypothesized that the brain can compensate for the vascular amblyopic deficit when amblyopia was treated [25].We exclude the effects of blood pressure or the diurnal variation influence on retinal and choroidal vessels [28]. We will do more observation and follow-up on these in future research. Moreover, due to the differences in Angio-OCT models and calculation methods, there is no reference value of large sample normal groups in children for comparison. In this sense, the establishment of pediatric Angio-OCT data in normal children is crucial to determine.