Response of the human choroid to short-term changes in eyelid and periocular temperature

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Choroidal thickness measurement is gaining popularity in clinical practice and research as an early indicator of myopia progression. Understanding the influence of temperature on choroidal thickness changes will improve the reliability of the measures. BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that environmental temperature may affect choroidal thickness and blood flow, with potential implications for ocular disease and refractive development. This study investigates the effect of changes in eyelid/ocular adnexa temperature on choroidal thickness. METHODS: In a paired-eye study, 20 young, healthy subjects received a warm stimulus (heat pack) over one closed eye and simultaneously a cold stimulus (ice pack) over the other for 10 min. Eyelid temperatures were monitored with thermal probes, and optical coherence tomography scans of the retina and choroid were taken before and after heating and cooling, and then every 5 min during a 15-min recovery period. Retinal and choroidal thicknesses were measured across the macular region (6 mm), including the subfoveal (1 mm), parafoveal (1-3 mm), and perifoveal (3-5 mm) regions, and compared between the cooled and warmed eyes. RESULTS: = .641). CONCLUSION: Cooling the anterior eye by application of a cold stimulus directly onto the closed eyelid caused a small but significant increase in choroidal thickness relative to warming the anterior eye, demonstrating that the choroid can modulate its thickness rapidly and transiently in response to local temperature changes.