AIM:To assess and compare the thicknesses of central fovea of macula and retinal nerve fiber layer in normal children and children with ametropic amblyopia.METHODS:Optical Coherence Tomography(OCT) was performed on 20 children(40 eyes) with ametropic amblyopia,the mean age was 6.15±1.64 years old,spherical equivalent was 1.50-7.00D,axis oculi was 22.07±0.97mm;OCT was also performed on 25 normal children(50 eyes),the mean age was 8.62±2.42 years old,spherical equivalent was 0.57±1.07D,axis oculi was 22.81±0.72mm.Thicknesses of central fovea of macula and retinal nerve fiber layer were measured.In this study,t-test and Pearson test with SPSS 13.0 software were used to assess and compare the thicknesses of central fovea of macula and retinal nerve fiber layer in normal children and children with ametropic amblyopia.RESULTS:The average thickness of the fovea was 136.60±13.82μm in normal eyes and 132.98±14.99μm in amblyopic eyes.The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant(P>0.05).The average thicknesses of the retinal nerve fiber layer was 110.40±7.63μm in normal eyes and 116.95±9.59μm in amblyopic eyes.The difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P<0.01).There was negative correlation between average thicknesses of the retinal nerve fiber layer and axis in normal eyes(r=-0.31,P<0.05),but there was no significantly correlation in amblyopic eyes(r=0.12,P>0.05).CONCLUSION:Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness may be affected by ametropic amblyopia,but further histopathologic confirmation is needed.