Microperimetry assessment in foveal hypoplasia: functional results in a series of pediatric patients

Objective: To study the relationships of functional and morphologic retinal parameters in a series of pediatric patients with varying degrees of foveal hypoplasia (FH). Design: Monocentric observational retrospective study. Participants: Among 21 pediatric patients, 16 met inclusion criteria, having FH confirmed with spectral -domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) scan Methods: Data were analyzed retrospectively. Patients able to undergo macular microperimetry (MP) and SD-OCT examinations were included in the analysis. MP and SD-OCT outcomes were compared with FH grading and best -corrected visual acuity (BCVA) using Pearson's correlation. Results: Thirty-one eyes from 16 patients (mean age 12.4 years) with different degrees of FH were analyzed. Two patients had grade 1, 7 had grade 2, 5 had grade 3, and 2 had grade 4 FH. Clinical nystagmus was present in 8 patients. The correlation between BCVA and SD-OCT data (-0.31) was lower than that found between BCVA and nystagmus (0.64), that for fixation index P1 (-0.60), as well as that for macular sensitivity (-0.63). Conclusions: Although limited by the small sample, our study confirms the feasibility of automated MP evaluation in pediatric patients with FH. The added value of this work is the provision of data on relationships between anatomic and functional macular measurements acquired with SD-OCT, MP, and BCVA in eyes with various degrees of FH. Larger prospective studies are necessary to confirm these results.