Abstract
PurposeTo establish normal parameters of macular and optic disc vasculature by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in healthy preschool children aged 4–6 years old in China. OCTA reflects retinal metabolism and development in children at these ages and could be used clinically and in future studies to aid diagnosis and prediction of retinal abnormalities and developmental stagnation.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, we measured foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal vessel density in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP); the deep capillary plexus (DCP), the foveal avascular zone (FAZ), and the radial capillary peripapillary (RPC) in the optic disc using investigational spectral-domain OCTA. The magnification effect of the FAZ area and microvasculature measurements was corrected by Littman and the modified Bennett formula.ResultsA total of 242 eyes (116 males and 126 females, 5.31 ± 0.73 years) were recruited for the analysis. The mean macular vessel density was 48.10 ± 2.92% and 48.74 ± 6.51% in the SCP and the DCP, respectively. The RPC vessel density was 47.17 ± 2.52%, 47.99 ± 4.48%, and 48.41 ± 3.07% in the whole image, inside disc, and peripapillary, respectively; and the mean FAZ area was 0.28 ± 0.11 mm2. A significant difference between male and female participants was found in the retinal vasculature (DCP, SCP, and RPC). None of these parameters were significantly different in age (P > 0.05), except that DCP slightly increased with aging. The right and left eyes had good consistency in the parameters of the macula and optic disc.ConclusionsOur study establishes the macular and optic disc OCTA reference values in 4- to 6-year-old healthy preschool children. They may be used in longitudinal OCTA studies and clinical applications.
Highlights
The retinal vascular system supports a majority of metabolic requirements, including transporting oxygen and nourishing the retina [1]
The retinal vascular system of macula mainly spreads into two major plexuses: the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) en face OCT angiography (OCTA) image was segmented with an inner boundary set at the ILM and an outer boundary at 10 μm below the inner plexiform layer (ILM to IPL10), and the deep capillary plexus (DCP) en face OCTA image was segmented with an inner boundary 10 μm below the inner plexiform layer(IPL) and an outer boundary at 10 μm above the outer plexiform layer (OPL, IPL-10 to OPL + 10)
Optic disc was recorded by whole image capillary, inside-disc capillary and RPC (a 1 mm-wide elliptical annulus extending from the optic disc boundary) in vasculature and RNFL in retinal thickness
Summary
The retinal vascular system supports a majority of metabolic requirements, including transporting oxygen and nourishing the retina [1]. Qualitative and quantitative studies have been related to vasculature in the normal eyes [13], various retinopathies [14,15,16], and glaucoma [13, 17, 18] of healthy adults. Relevant factors, such as age and sex, were fully researched in these adult studies. Explorations on the characteristics of the macular and optic disc vascular systems in healthy children are sparse. What’s more, we corrected the magnification effect of the OCTA parameters to ensure the accuracy of our results
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