Choroidal thickness in school children: The Gobi Desert Children Eye Study

Dan Zhu, Yan Wang, Yan Fei Zheng, Da Yong Yang, Kai Guo, Xian Rong Yang, Xin Xia Jing, Ian Y. Wong, Qi Sheng You, Yong Tao, Jost B. Jonas, Xiangtian Zhou
2017 PLoS ONE  
Purpose To investigate choroidal thickness (CT) and its associations in children in a school-based study. Methods The cross-sectional school-based Gobi Desert Children Eye Study included 1565 out of 1911 (81.9%) eligible children from all schools in the oasis region of Ejina in the Gobi Desert. A detailed ophthalmic examination was performed, including spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with enhanced depth imaging for CT measurement. (0.90±0.06;range:0.66,1.23) and ratio of CT(2500μm
more » ... asal to fovea)/SFCT (0.70±0.13; range:0.28,1.23) decreased with older age (P = 0.01;and P = 0.001, respectively), while ratio of CT(1000μm temporal to fovea)/SFCT (1.02±0.06;range:0.56,1.37) and ratio of CT (2500μm temporal to fovea)/SFCT (0.99±0.11;range:0.54,1.84) increased with older age (both P<0.001). Time spent outdoors or indoors was not significantly associated with CTrelated parameter in multivariate analysis. Conclusions In contrast to SFCT in adults and despite elongating axial length, SFCT in children increased in cross-sectional analysis with older age (up to 11 years of age) and then started to decrease with further ageing. It suggests an increase in choroidal volume up to the age of 11 years. In children, the choroid was thickest at 1000μm temporal to the fovea, followed by the subfoveal region, and this difference significantly increased with older age. In contrast, CT nasal to the fovea in relationship to SFCT decreased with older age. CT was independent of lifestyle-associated parameters. Choroidal thickness in children PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179579 pmid:28617854 pmcid:PMC5472304 fatcat:s7ft7ubwazhuji5mfcwnjpujne