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.