AIM: To analyze the differences of retinal structure, visual evoked potential and visual function in different types of amblyopia children.

METHODS: One hundred and twenty children with 136 eyes with moderate amblyopia treated in our hospital from May 2014 to May 2018 were enrolled as the observation group(31 cases with 31 eyes of anisometropy, 35 cases with 70 eyes of refractive ametropia, and 26 cases with 35 eyes of strabismus); meanwhile, 29 children with 58 eyes with normal vision in the eye examination from our hospital were selected as the control group. Optical coherence tomography(OCT)imager was used to detect the foveal thickness of the macula, the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer(RNFL)around the optic disc and the quadrants, and the changes in retinal function were detected using visual electroencephalography. The P100 amplitude and latency of visual evoked potentials were observed and stereoscopic inspection being performed.

RESULTS: The thickness of macular fovea, the thickness of the optic disc and the RNFL in the quadrants of children with anisometropy and ametropia were significantly higher than those in the control group and children with strabismic amblyopia(P<0.01). Compared with the control group, patients with refractive amblyopia had lower light peak potentials and longer light peak times. The dark valley potential of myopia children was higher in children with refractive amblyopia, and the Arden ratio and Gliern ratio were lower(All P<0.01). The P100 wave amplitudes of the visual evoked potentials of the three types of amblyopia children were significantly lower than those of the control group, and the 1° and 15' spatial frequency latency periods were significantly delayed(all P<0.01). The number of cross parallaxes, non-cross parallaxes, near-zero parallaxes, and far-sighted stereoscopic aberrations in the ametropic amblyopia group were significantly higher than those in the strabismic amblyopia group(P<0.05), but were no different from those in the ametropic amblyopia group in terms of each indicators.

CONCLUSION: Retinal structure of patients with ametropic amblyopia and ametropic amblyopia has obvious abnormalities, and the P100 wave latency is delayed; strabismic amblyopia has the largest effect on stereoscopic function, while refractive amblyopia has the least effect.