Macular and peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer thickness in patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease.

PURPOSE: To evaluate macular and retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) measurements in patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease (cCHD) using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with cCHD (18 females and 12 males, mean age 10.9 years) and 60 healthy controls (35 females and 25 males, mean age 11.2 years) underwent complete ophthalmologic examination and OCT measurements of macular and peripapillary RNFL thickness. RESULTS: Patients with cCHD had significantly thinner measurements in all macular subfields compared with healthy controls (P<0.001). There was no significant difference in peripapillary RNFL thickness between the two groups, with the exception of the upper quadrant, for which thickness measurements were higher in patients with cCHD (P=0.021). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with cCHD showed a significant decrease in macular thickness and a thickened superior quadrant RNFL thickness when compared with healthy controls. This may represent the damage caused by the effect of hypoxia.