Assessment of retinal findings in children and adolescents with specific learning disor- der: A case-control study

Abstract

Specific Learning Disorder; is a neurodevelop- mental disorder that arises due to genetic, epigenetic and various environmental factors. The aim of this study is to compare children and adolescents diagnosed with specific learning disorder with healthy controls in terms of intraocular pressure, retinal nerve fiber layer, central macular thickness and choroidal thickness. Method: This prospective case-control study included 63 children and adolescents, including 30 with specific learning disabili- ties and 33 controls. The case and control groups were assessed using ‘Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version Form-DSM-5 Turkish Version for diagnostic inter- view. Case and control groups were compared in terms of retinal findings by performing intraocular pressure and optic coherence tomography. In the study, various retinal nerve fiber layer quadrants were compared sepa- rately for the right and left eyes. Results: In the case group, only the right eye superior nasal retinal nerve fiber layer quadrant thickness was found to be lower than the control group. There was no difference between the groups in terms of other parameters. Discussion: Our study indicates a lower right eye superi- or nasal retinal nerve fiber layer quadrant thickness in children and adolescents with specific learning disorder as compared to controls. However, there was no diffe- rence between the groups in terms of intraocular pres- sure and other retinal findings. Longitudinal studies with larger samples are needed in order to generalize retinal findings in specific learning disorder to the population.