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Clinical science
Diurnal variations in luminal and stromal areas of choroid in normal eyes
  1. Takamasa Kinoshita1,2,
  2. Yoshinori Mitamura1,
  3. Kayo Shinomiya1,
  4. Mariko Egawa1,
  5. Akiko Iwata1,
  6. Akiko Fujihara1,
  7. Yoko Ogushi1,
  8. Kentaro Semba1,
  9. Kei Akaiwa1,
  10. Eisuke Uchino3,
  11. Shozo Sonoda3,
  12. Taiji Sakamoto3
  1. 1Department of Ophthalmology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan
  2. 2Department of Ophthalmology, Sapporo City General Hospital, Sapporo, Japan
  3. 3Department of Ophthalmology, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Takamasa Kinoshita, Department of Ophthalmology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan; knst129{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Aims To determine the diurnal variations of the luminal and stromal areas of the choroid in normal eyes.

Methods This was a prospective observational study of 38 eyes of 38 normal subjects. The blood pressure, heart rate, intraocular pressure and enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomographic (EDI-OCT) images were recorded every 3 hours between 6:00 and 21:00 hours. The horizontal EDI-OCT images of the subfoveal choroid were converted to binary images. The central choroidal thickness (CCT), total cross-sectional choroidal area, the luminal areas, stromal areas and the ratio of luminal area to total choroidal area (L/C ratio) were determined.

Results There were significant diurnal variations in the CCT, total choroidal area, luminal area and L/C ratio with the maximum values at 6:00 hours and the minimum values at 15:00 hours (p<0.001 for the CCT, p=0.011 for the total choroidal area, p<0.001 for the luminal area and p=0.014 for the L/C ratio). There was no significant variation in the stromal area (p=0.216). The range of fluctuation in the CCT was significantly correlated with that in the luminal area and the total choroidal area (p<0.001). However, there was no significant correlation between the fluctuation range in the CCT and that in the stromal area (p=0.095). There was no statistical relationship between the systemic parameters and the choroidal parameters.

Conclusions The changes in the luminal area are most likely responsible for the diurnal change in the CCT and subfoveal choroidal area.

Trial registration number UMIN000019060, Pre-results.

  • Choroid
  • Imaging
  • Macula
  • Physiology

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2016-308594

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors have given final approval of this version to be published. Design of the study: TK, YM, ME, SS and TS. Conduct of the study: TK, YM, KSh and ME. Management of the data: YM, KSh, AI, AF, YO, KSe and KA. Analysis of the data: TK, YM, KSh, ME, KSe, EU and SS. Interpretation of the data: TK, YM, KSh, ME, AI, AF, YO, KSe, KA, SS and TS. Preparation of the manuscript: TK, YM, EU, SS and TS. Overall coordination: TS.

    • Funding This work was supported in part by grant-in-aid 16K11288 (to YM) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval The Institutional Review Board of Tokushima University Hospital.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement Data are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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