Inter-Ocular Symmetry of Vascular Density and Retinal Thickness in Unilateral Anisometropic Amblyopia

BACKGROUND: Inter-ocular symmetry of macular vascular anatomy in healthy subjects has been well documented in previous optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) studies. In our present study, we have demonstrated that the presence of anisometropic amblyopia in one eye does not alter this unique feature significantly. We investigated whether the presence of unilateral anisometropic amblyopia due to moderate amounts of hyperopia and/or astigmatism would have any significant influence on measurements of retinal thickness (RT) and superficial vessel density (SVD) in adult subjects. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In the study group, both eyes of 21 adult subjects with unilateral anisometropic amblyopia were enrolled. Only one eye of an age-matched control group including 33 subjects was randomly selected. RT and SVD were measured in foveal and parafoveal retinal areas and compared in amblyopic eyes, their fellow eyes and in the control group. Inter-ocular symmetry of RT and SVD in amblyopic and fellow eyes were investigated by using correlation analysis. RESULTS: There were statistically significant inter-ocular correlations of foveal and parafoveal RT in amblyopic and fellow eyes (P < 0.0001, for both). Foveal and parafoveal RT of the control group were not statistically different from amblyopic eyes (P = 0.072 and P = 0.46, respectively). There was no difference between foveal SVD of amblyopic eyes and control group (P = 0.10) and a significant inter-ocular correlation was found between amblyopic and fellow eyes (P = 0.029). CONCLUSION: For our adult subjects, none of the investigated OCTA parameters of the amblyopic eyes were found to be statistically different from those of age-matched controls. The preservation of inter-ocular symmetry in the amblyopic and fellow eyes implies that the influence of anisometropic amblyopia in one eye would be relatively small and negligible on routine OCTA examination.