Impact of ocular dominance on circumpapillary and macular retinal nerve fibre layer thickness and ganglion cell layer thickness in a healthy pediatric population.

Objective: This study was designed to evaluate potential differences in circumpapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (cpRNFL) thickness and segmented macular retinal layers between dominant and nondominant eyes on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography in a pediatric population.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Participants: 89 healthy children attending a general pediatric clinic.

Methods: Participants underwent sighting dominant testing and macular and cpRNFL spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Segmented macular layer thicknesses and cpRNFL thickness were compared for individual patients based on their ocular dominance.

Results: Ocular dominance occurred particularly in the right eye (64.7%). Dominant and nondominant eyes did not differ significantly in axial length or spherical equivalent refraction; axial length: 22.99 ± 1.17 mm versus 22.98 ± 1.19 mm; p = 0.51 and spherical equivalent refraction: -0.09 ± 2.68 D versus 0.32 ± 2.93 D; p = 0.41. In the comparison of the macular ganglion layer the average thickness in the 1 mm central Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study area was significantly different between the dominant and nondominant eye (16.56 ± 6.02 μm vs 17.58 ± 8.32 μm; p = 0.02). However, when compensating with Bonferroni, this difference was no longer statistically significant. There were no differences in the analyses of average global and sectorial cpRNFL thickness in dominant and nondominant eyes.

Conclusion: Dominant eyes demonstrated no significantly thicker average macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL), Ganglion cell layer (GCL) thickness or cpRNFL thickness. No ocular characteristic was found to be associated with the relative dominance of an eye in eyes with low anisometropia.