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Multifocal electroretinography in amblyopia

  • Pediatrics
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Abstract

Purpose

To identify whether there are functional abnormalities in the retina of amblyopic eyes using multifocal electroretinography (mfERG).

Methods

This is a prospective study of patients ≥ 7 years of age identified with unilateral amblyopia (strabismic or anisometropic). Multifocal ERG and flash ERG were performed to compare parameters between the amblyopic and non-amblyopic fellow eyes. A complete analysis of the five ring averages was done including the central ring.

Results

Thirty-eight patients were included: mean age was 14.3 ± 7.3 years; 18 patients were strabismic and 20 were anisometropic. Amblyopic eye responses across the rings in multifocal ERG were diminished compared with fellow non-amblyopic eyes with significant differences detected in the central rings (p = 0.001). On the other hand, flash ERG did not show any consistently significant differences. When divided by severity, amplitudes of central rings were significantly lower in severely amblyopic eyes compared with non-amblyopic eyes (p = 0.001), while in mild amblyopia, no significant differences were observed. No significant difference was observed between anisometropic and strabismic amblyopic eyes.

Conclusions

Using multifocal ERG, significantly decreased amplitudes were observed in amblyopic eyes compared with normal fellow eyes in the central ring. This correlated with the severity of amblyopia. No difference was observed when comparing the two groups of amblyopia (strabismic and anisometropic). Those findings may help clarify the pathophysiology of amblyopia better and open the door for new objective ways to monitor the response to amblyopia treatment but this needs to be further studied.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ophthalmology Department, American University of Beirut Medical Center, PO Box 110236, Beirut, Lebanon

    Christiane Al-Haddad, Alaa Bou Ghannam, Zeinab El Moussawi, Elza Rachid, Karine Ismail, Marwan Atallah, Larissa Smeets & Hasan Chahine

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  1. Christiane Al-Haddad
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Correspondence to Christiane Al-Haddad.

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This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board at the American University of Beirut and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Al-Haddad, C., Bou Ghannam, A., El Moussawi, Z. et al. Multifocal electroretinography in amblyopia. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 258, 683–691 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-019-04558-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-019-04558-x

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