Does Obesity Affect the Ocular Choroid Tissue in Children and Adolescents?

The prevalence of childhood obesity is growing. Obesity may cause microangiopathic changes associated with the inflammatory process (1,2). Microvascular changes caused by obesity may result in damage to the optic nerve, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and choroidal regions, and damage can be revealed in the early period with optic coherence tomography (OCT). The layers of the eye can be visualized in a painless, rapid and non-invasive way using OCT (3). The choroid is one of the most highly vascularized tissues of body and it supplies the outer 1/3 of the retina. The choroid also plays important anatomical and physiological roles, including ocular thermoregulation, the regulation of intraocular pressure and growth factor secretion. Thinning of choroid tissue is a damage indicator (4,5). Previous studies have investigated choroidal thickness in healthy children (6-9). However, few studies have investigated the effect on choroidal and retinal structure in obese children, and their results are inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in choroid tissue thickness in non-diabetic children and adolescents using OCT and the association with metabolic risk factors and pubertal stages.