Evaluation of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer and Macular Thickness in Amblyopia

Purpose: To investigate the differences in macular and nevre fiber layer thicknesses between amblyopic and fellow eyes. Method: One hundred and twenty two eyes of 61 patients were enrolled for this study. All patients underwent complete ocular examination, cover test, prism test and also RNFL, macular thickness measurements (CMT; central macular thickness, TMT; total macular thickness) were obtained with OCT. 61 amblyopic (30 strabismic, 31 anisometropic) eyes and 61 fellow eyes were compared. A comparison of all amblyopic eyes versus fellow eyes was conducted. Amblyopic subgroups were also compared with both each other and fellow eyes, respectively. Results: There was slightly elevated RNFL in strabismic group comparing to anisometropic group, but the difference was not significant. The strabismic group had both lower values in CMT and TMT than the anisometropic group but only the difference in TMT values was statistically significant (p: 0.043). Although the all amblyopic group had elevated RNFL, CMT and TMT values were lower comparing fellow eyes, but none of the differences were statistically significant. Conclusion: The only significant result in our study between strabismic and anisometropic groups was TMT. The evaluation between amblyopes and fellow eyes revealed no differences. Amblyopia does not seem to have prominent effect on retinal structures.