title: Macular thickness and amblyopia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare macular thickness in children with functional amblyopia and those without amblyopia using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
  
  
  METHODS
  This case-control study was conducted on 93 children aged 3-10 years including 44 cases with unilateral amblyopia and 49 subjects without amblyopia. Amblyopic eyes were considered as the case group and their fellow eyes as internal controls; eyes of non-amblyopic children served as the external control. Macular thickness of all eyes were measured by optical coherence tomography in the center (foveola), 1 mm ring (fovea), and 3 and 6 mm rings and compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although macular thickness was generally not different between the study groups, there was a significant difference in central macular thickness between eyes with moderate to severe amblyopia and the external controls (P = 0.037). Foveal thickness difference exceeding 10 microns between fellow eyes was detected in a larger number of amblyopic children as compared to non-amblyopic controls (P = 0.002). Mean foveal thickness was greater in boys (P = 0.037) but there was no significant difference in foveal thickness among various types of refractive errors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although there was no significant relationship between macular thickness and amblyopia, foveolar thickness in eyes with moderate to severe amblyopia was significantly greater than the external controls. Further studies with more cases of moderate to severe amblyopia are recommended.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Zhale
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rajavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moghadasifar
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohadese
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Feizi
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Narges
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Haftabadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hadavand
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yaseri
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kourosh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sheibani
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghazal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Norouzi
keywords: Amblyopia; Macular Thickness; Optical Coherence Tomography