Foveal avascular zone and foveal pit formation after preterm birth

BackgroundVascularisation of the macula takes place between 24 and 27 weeks post-conception. Preterm birth may affect the formation of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and foveal depression, and displacement of inner retinal layers away from the incipient fovea.ObjectiveTo examine whether vascular abnormalities accompany an inner retinal abnormality, and whether they are coincident.MethodsHigh-density spectral domain optical coherence tomography volume scans were obtained from 24 preterm children and 34 full-term controls (5–16 years). Matlab programs were used to quantify total retinal thickness, thickness of individual retinal layers and metrics of foveal morphology. Summed voxel projections for the ganglion cell layer–inner nuclear layer were used to identify the FAZ.ResultsPreterm children had significantly smaller FAZ diameters than controls (p