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Pupillometry measurement and its relationship to retinal structural changes in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

  • Pediatrics
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to assess the pupillometry measurements of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients and to investigate their correlations with macular and RNFL thickness parameters by comparing the values with a healthy control group.

Methods

Newly diagnosed ADHD patients in a child and adolescent clinic of a tertiary hospital were consulted in an ophthalmology clinic. All participants had undergone a standard ophthalmological examination including refractometry, best corrected visual acuity, color vision, anterior segment biomicroscopy, fundoscopy, pupillometry, and OCT. All results were compared with a healthy control group at the same age.

Results

The study group consisted of 32 patients and there were 43 children in the control group. Mean pupillary velocities of ADHD patients and control group were 0.60 ± 0.11 mm/s and 0.63 ± 0.11 mm/s, and 0.49 ± 0.12 mm/s and 0.50 ± 0.10 mm/s, for right and left eyes, respectively. The difference was statistically significant for both eyes (p < 0.05). Mean RNFL thickness measurements of the study group were 90.69 ± 8.58 μm and 89.63 ± 8.14 μm for right and left eyes, respectively and those were 87.35 ± 7.67 μm and 88.77 ± 7.44 μm, respectively in the healthy group. Correlation between right pupillary velocity and RNFL thickness was statistically significant (r = 0.339, p = 0.003).

Conclusion

Higher pupillary velocity values were observed in both eyes of children with ADHD and that was positively correlated with RNFL measurements of their right eyes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Medical Faculty, Rize, Turkey

    Mehmet Gökhan Aslan, Feyzahan Uzun, Hüseyin Fındık & Murat Okutucu

  2. Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Medical Faculty, Rize, Turkey

    Murat Kaçar

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Medical Faculty, Rize, Turkey

    Çiçek Hocaoğlu

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Mehmet Gökhan Aslan, Murat Kaçar, Hüseyin Fındık, and Murat Okutucu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mehmet Gökhan Aslan. Proofreading was performed by Feyzahan Uzun and Çiçek Hocaoğlu and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mehmet Gökhan Aslan.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Recep Tayyip Erdogan University research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Aslan, M.G., Uzun, F., Fındık, H. et al. Pupillometry measurement and its relationship to retinal structural changes in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 258, 1309–1317 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-04658-z

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