Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in children with iron deficiency anemia.

PURPOSE: To evaluate peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in children with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in comparison with healthy controls and to investigate the correlation between peripapillary RNFL thicknesses and the hematologic parameters in these subjects.

METHODS

Forty eyes of 40 children with a diagnosis of IDA (anemic group) and 40 eyes of 40 age- and sex-matched healthy children (control group) were enrolled in this study. Peripapillary RNFL thickness measurements were performed using Cirrus HD optical coherence tomography (OCT).

RESULTS

Mean age of each group was 11.3±2.7 years. Average RNFL and RNFLs of superior and inferior quadrants were significantly thinner in the anemic group than in the control group (p=0.006, p=0.005, and p=0.005, respectively). In addition, average peripapillary RNFL thickness and RNFL thicknesses of superior, inferior, and temporal quadrants were correlated with hemoglobin levels (r1=0.734, p1<0.001, r2=0.456, p2=0.005, r3=0.598, p3<0.001, r4=0.349, p4=0.037, respectively) in anemic group. CONCLUSIONS. We found that children with IDA had different peripapillary RNFL profile measured by Cirrus HD spectral-domain OCT. We caution ophthalmologists when they measure RNFL thickness in children to diagnose glaucoma or other neuro-ophthalmic disorders.