Factors affecting choroidal circulation parameters in 4–14-year-old Chinese children measured by SS-OCT/OCTA

Purpose

To measure the choroidal circulatory parameters Han Chinese children aged 4–14 years from Southwest China, and to explore the relationships between these parameters and age, axial length (AL), and choroidal thickness (ChT).

Methods

284 eyes from 142 subjects were included in this cross-sectional study. All participants underwent cycloplegic refraction and IOLMaster500 examination. Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) was used to measure submacular choroidal thickness, choroidal vascular volume (CVV), choroidal stromal volume (CSV), choroidal vascularity index (CVI), and CVV/CSV ratio.

Results

In this population, the mean CVV was 2.92 ± 0.55 mm³, CSV was 4.69 ± 0.68 mm³, CVI was 38.22 ± 2.46 %, and CVV/CSV ratio was 62.11 ± 6.44 %. Multivariable regression analyses showed that both CVV and CSV were negatively correlated with AL (both P < 0.001) and positively correlated with ChT (both P < 0.001), while age showed no significant correlation with them (both P > 0.05). However, the correlations between CVI and age were not uniform rectilinear. Among participants aged ≤8 years, CVI showed no correlation with age (P > 0.05), while among those aged >8 years, it was positively correlated with age (P < 0.01). CVV/CSV ratio was positively correlated with ChT and age (both P < 0.01).

Conclusion

After the age of 8, age was positively correlated with CVI. ChT was well correlated with CVI. Longer AL and thinner ChT were associated with reduced CVV and CSV, with CVV decreasing more rapidly than CSV.