Optic disc and retinal vascular features in first 6 years of Chinese children

Retinal microvasculature plays an important role in children's fundus lesions and even in their later life. However, little was known on the features of normal retina in early life. The purpose of this study was to explore the normal retinal features in the first 6 years of life and provide information for future research. Children, aged from birth to 6 years old and diagnosed with various unilateral ocular diseases were included. Venous phase fundus fluorescein angiography images with the optic disc at the center were collected. Based on the ResUNet convolutional neural network, optic disc and retinal vascular features in the posterior retina were computed automatically. A total of 146 normal eyes of 146 children were included. Among different age groups, no changes were shown in the optic disc diameter (y = -0.00002x + 1.362, R = 0.025, = 0.058). Retinal vessel density and fractal dimension are linearly and strongly correlated ( = 0.979,