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Subject Area

Pediatrics

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objective The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of hypertension on choroidal thickness using the enhanced-depth imaging mode of spectralis Heidelberg optical coherence tomography. Background Hypertension is an important risk factor in developing systemic vascular disease and ocular vascular disease. The effect of hypertension on the retina and deeper retinal tissues is now a topic of great interest besides being a risk factor for ocular vascular disease. Recently, optical coherence tomography has been shown to be effective in evaluating choroidal thickness. Patients and methods We include in this study 100 participants (50 healthy normotensive and 50 hypertensive patients). Patients recruited from the internal medicine department and diagnosed with hypertension according to the guidelines of clinical hypertension criteria and controlled with treatment with no cardiac problems. We measured the choroidal thicknesses of the normotensive patients as a control group and the choroidal thicknesses of the hypertensive patients. Choroidal thickness measurements were taken at the fovea and at four more points which are located at, respectively, 500 μm nasal to the fovea, 1000 μm nasal to the fovea, 500 μm temporal to the fovea, and 1000 μm temporal to the fovea. Results A significant difference was found for the choroidal thickness as the choroidal thickness decreases in hypertensive patients in comparison to normotensive participants. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrated that choroidal thickness decreases in patients with systemic arterial hypertension. This may be caused by arteriolar sclerosis and vascular contraction caused by high intravascular pressure in the choroid.

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