PURPOSE To identify whether there are functional abnormalities in the retina of amblyopic eyes using multifocal electroretinography (mfERG). METHODS This is a prospective study of patients ≥ 7 years of age identified with unilateral amblyopia (strabismic or anisometropic). Multifocal ERG and flash ERG were performed to compare parameters between the amblyopic and non-amblyopic fellow eyes. A complete analysis of the five ring averages was done including the central ring. RESULTS Thirty-eight patients were included: mean age was 14.3 ± 7.3 years; 18 patients were strabismic and 20 were anisometropic. Amblyopic eye responses across the rings in multifocal ERG were diminished compared with fellow non-amblyopic eyes with significant differences detected in the central rings (p = 0.001). On the other hand, flash ERG did not show any consistently significant differences. When divided by severity, amplitudes of central rings were significantly lower in severely amblyopic eyes compared with non-amblyopic eyes (p = 0.001), while in mild amblyopia, no significant differences were observed. No significant difference was observed between anisometropic and strabismic amblyopic eyes. CONCLUSIONS Using multifocal ERG, significantly decreased amplitudes were observed in amblyopic eyes compared with normal fellow eyes in the central ring. This correlated with the severity of amblyopia. No difference was observed when comparing the two groups of amblyopia (strabismic and anisometropic). Those findings may help clarify the pathophysiology of amblyopia better and open the door for new objective ways to monitor the response to amblyopia treatment but this needs to be further studied.

中文翻译：

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弱视的多焦点视网膜电图。

目的使用多焦点视网膜电图（mfERG）识别弱视眼的视网膜是否存在功能异常。方法这是一项对≥7岁的单侧弱视（斜视或屈光参差）患者进行的前瞻性研究。进行了多焦点ERG和闪光ERG来比较弱视和非弱视同伴眼睛之间的参数。对包括中央环在内的五个环的平均值进行了完整的分析。结果共纳入38例患者，平均年龄为14.3±7.3岁；斜视18例，屈光参差的20例。与非非屈光性眼相比，多焦点ERG跨环的弱视眼反应减少，在中央环中检测到显着差异（p = 0.001）。另一方面，Flash ERG没有显示出任何一致的显着差异。用严重程度除以严重弱视眼的中心环幅度要明显低于非弱视眼的中心环幅度（p = 0.001），而轻度弱视则没有明显差异。屈光参差和斜视弱视眼之间没有观察到显着差异。结论使用多焦点ERG，弱视眼的振幅比中环正常的同侧眼明显降低。这与弱视的严重程度有关。比较两组弱视（斜视和屈光参差）时，未观察到差异。