AIM: To evaluate the application of optical coherence tomography(OCT)in evaluation of the differences in macular area and peripheral nerve fiber layer thickness(RNFL)of the binocular anisometropic amblyopia of adolescents and children with monocular anisometropic amblyopia, so as to provide a basis for exploring the pathogenesis of amblyopia and guiding the diagnosis and treatment of amblyopia.

METHODS: Retrieved Chinese and English databases such as Weipu, WanFang, PubMed, EMBASE etc, and carried out relevant clinical research on the use of OCT to examine macular area and RNFL of adolescents and children with monocular anisometropic amblyopia from 1995-01-01/2019-12-08 screening, evaluation and data extraction, including the thickness of central fovea, central area of macular fovea with diameter 1mm, the inner ring area with 1-3mm, the thickness of the outer ring area with 3-6mm, and the RNFL of monocular anisometropia amblyopia patients into studies, then do Meta-analysis with the RevMan 5.3 software.

RESULTS: Results of the time-domain OCT(TD-OCT)study showed that the thickness of macular fovea in the amblyopic eyes and the thickness of the central area of the macular fovea with diameter 1mm were greater than those of the contralateral non-amblyopic eyes(P<0.05), and the average thickness of RNFL in amblyopic eyes was thicker in the contralateral eye(P>0.05). Results of the study using frequency domain OCT(SD-OCT)showed that the thickness of macular fovea and the thickness of each zone in amblyopic eyes were greater than those of the contralateral non-amblyopic eyes, except for the central area of the macular fovea with diameter 1mm and the outer ring area below 3-6mm. In addition, the rest of the comparisons were different(P<0.05); the average thickness of RNFL and the thickness of each zone of the nose in amblyopic eyes were larger than those of the contralateral non-amblyopic eyes(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: Thickness of the macular area and RNFL of the amblyopic eye of monocular anisometropic amblyopia is higher than that of the contralateral non-amblyopic eye, and amblyopia mainly causes the thickness of the macular fovea to increase within 1mm diameter.