Article Text
Abstract
Objective To investigate the optic nerve and macular parameters of children who recovered from COVID-19 compared with healthy children using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Design Cohort study.
Setting Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Madrid.
Patients Children between 6 and 18 years old who recovered from COVID-19 with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and historical controls were included.
Interventions All patients underwent an ophthalmological examination, including macular and optic nerve OCT. Demographic data, medical history and COVID-19 symptoms were noted.
Main outcome measures Peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer thickness, macular retinal nerve fibre layer thickness, macular ganglion cell layer thickness and retinal thickness.
Results 90 patients were included: 29 children who recovered from COVID-19 and 61 controls. Patients with COVID-19 presented an increase in global peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer thickness (mean difference 7.7; 95% CI 3.4 to 12.1), temporal superior (mean difference 11.0; 95% CI 3.3 to 18.6), temporal inferior (mean difference 15.6; 95% CI 6.5 to 24.7) and nasal (mean difference 9.8; 95% CI 2.9 to 16.7) sectors. Macular retinal nerve fibre layer analysis showed decreased thickness in the nasal outer (p=0.011) and temporal inner (p=0.036) sectors in patients with COVID-19, while macular ganglion cell layer thickness increased in these sectors (p=0.001 and p=0.015, respectively). No differences in retinal thickness were noted.
Conclusions Children with recent history of COVID-19 present significant changes in peripapillary and macular OCT analyses.
- ophthalmology
- neurology
- COVID-19
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request.
Footnotes
Contributors BB-B, NG-V, JTR-A and JG-F contributed to conception and design of the work. BB-B, NG-V, LM-F, IC-C, PP-G and JTR-A contributed to acquisition of data. JD-L and JG-F interpreted the data. BB-B, NG-V and JG-F drafted the work. LM-F, IC-C, PP-G, JD-L and JTR-A revised the work. All authors approved the final version.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.