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Subfoveal choroidal thickness decreases significantly with age, degree of myopia
Am J Ophthalmol. 2009;148(3):445-450.
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Macular choroidal thickness appeared to diminish with advancing age and increasing myopia, based on enhanced depth imaging, a study showed.
"The choroid in highly myopic eyes is very thin and undergoes further thinning with increasing age and degree of myopia," the study authors said. "Abnormalities of the choroid may play a role in the pathogenesis of myopic degeneration."
The retrospective study included 55 eyes of 31 patients with a mean age of 59.7 years. Mean refractive error was –11.9 D.
In eyes with 6 D or more of myopia, investigators performed enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography to measure choroidal thickness from the outer margin of the retinal pigment epithelium to the inner scleral border. Images were obtained at 1,000-µm intervals across a horizontal section, 3 mm temporal to the fovea to 3 mm nasal to the fovea.
Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness was 93.2 µm and was shown to diminish with age (P = .006), degree of refractive error (P < .001) and history of choroidal neovascularization (P = .013).
Based on regression analysis, subfoveal choroidal thickness appeared to decrease by 12.7 µm for each decade of life and by 8.7 µm for each diopter of myopia, the authors said.