PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lin, Senlin
AU  - Zhu, Bijun
AU  - Wang, Ting
AU  - Wang, Hong
AU  - Xu, Xian
AU  - Wang, Shanshan
AU  - Yin, Yao
AU  - Xiang, Zhaoyu
AU  - Qian, Yu
AU  - Zhang, Zhang
AU  - Cui, Lipu
AU  - Zou, Haidong
AU  - He, Xiangui
AU  - Zhu, Jianfeng
AU  - Ma, Yingyan
TI  - Sympathetic nervous system activity is associated with choroidal thickness and axial length in school-aged children
AID  - 10.1136/bjo-2022-322165
DP  - 2023 Feb 14
TA  - British Journal of Ophthalmology
PG  - bjo-2022-322165
4099  - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2023/02/13/bjo-2022-322165.short
4100  - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2023/02/13/bjo-2022-322165.full
AB  - Background/aims We aim to explore the effect of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) on choroid thickness (ChT) and axial length (AL).Methods Students of grade 2 and 3 from a primary school were included and followed for 1 year. Visual acuity, refraction, AL and ChT were measured. Morning urine samples were collected for determining SNS activity by analysing concentrations of epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine using the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The most important factor (factor 1) was calculated using factor analysis to comprehensively indicate the SNS activity.Results A total of 273 students were included, with an average age of 7.77±0.69 years, and 150 (54.95%) were boys. Every 1 µg/L increase in epinephrine is associated with 1.60 µm (95% CI 0.30 to 2.90, p=0.02) decrease in average ChT. Every 1 µg/L increase in norepinephrine is associated with 0.53 µm (95% CI 0.08 to 0.98, p=0.02) decrease in the ChT in inner-superior region. The factor 1 was negatively correlated with the ChT in the superior regions. Every 1 µg/L increase in norepinephrine was associated with 0.002 mm (95% CI 0.0004 to 0.004, p=0.016) quicker AL elongation. The factor 1 was positively correlated with AL elongation (coefficient=0.037, 95% CI 0.005 to 0.070, p=0.023).Conclusions We hypothesised that chronic stress characterised by elevated level of the SNS, was associated with significant increase in AL elongation, probably through thinning of the choroid.Data are available on reasonable request.