Fluorescein angiography to estimate normal peripheral retinal nonperfusion in children.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the normal distance from vascular termini to ora serrata in children's eyes.


METHODS
Clinical records and peripheral fluorescein angiography images of the ora serrata region, taken using scleral indentation and the RetCam system during examination under anesthesia, were retrospectively reviewed from consecutive patients with presumed normal peripheral retinal vasculature. All patients had ocular disease either only in the fellow eye or if in the study eye, to a degree judged not likely to affect peripheral retinal vascular development.


RESULTS
The record review identified 33 eyes of 31 patients with presumed normal peripheral vasculature. Mean age at angiography was 3.8 years (range, 2 months to 13 years). Mean area of nonperfusion was 0.9 disk diameters (DD) temporally (range, 1.5-0.5 DD; SD 0.3) and 0.6 DD nasally (range, 1-0.25 DD; SD 0.2).


CONCLUSIONS
In children up to 13 years of age, the avascular retina normally extends 1.5 DD or less temporally and 1.0 DD or less nasally from the ora serrata. Conservatively, ≥ 2 DD of nonperfusion, 3 standard deviations more than normal, should be considered abnormal and a sign of peripheral nonperfusion. These data may serve as preliminary indicators of the range of normal when evaluating diseases with retinal vascular abnormalities in children.
Retina Consultants, Des Plaines, IL 60016, USA. michaelblairmd@gmail.com
Michael P
MP
Blair
Michael J
MJ
Shapiro
M Elizabeth
ME
Hartnett
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D012161:Retinal Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D012169:Retinal Vein / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies