Retinal and choroidal thickness in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease: a cross-sectional cohort study

BACKGROUND: To measure the retinal/choroidal thicknesses in the macular area of asymptomatic pediatric patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). METHODS: This cross-sectional cohort study included 40 children (79 eyes) with SCD and 19 control patients (36 eyes). All subjects underwent spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) with enhanced-depth imaging OCT. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) were applied to compare the outcomes between groups. P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: The choroidal thickness in the macular area in the study subfields was significantly thinner in the SCD eyes compared with control eyes (subfoveal subfield and temporal parafoveal subfield, p < 0.0001; nasal parafoveal subfield, p < 0.0001 temporal perifoveal subfield, p < 0.0001; and nasal perifoveal subfield, p < 0.0001). The variations in the retinal thickness were not significant. CONCLUSION: EDI-OCT showed that the macular choroidal thickness is thinner in asymptomatic pediatric patients with SCD.