Children with high myopia have greater foveal thickness in inner retina
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Key takeaways:
- Foveal thickness was greater for the inner retina in the high myopia group.
- The high myopia group had thinner parafoveal and perifoveal retinal regions.
The progression of myopia among school-aged children in China appeared to primarily affect changes in inner retinal thickness over the course of 1 year, according to research.
“With the accelerated increase in the incidence and progression of myopia in school-age children, researchers are putting more focus on retinal thickness in children with myopia,” researchers at Beijing Tongren Eye Center wrote in a study published in the Journal of Ophthalmology.
To investigate the relationship between myopia progression and changes in retinal thickness over a 1-year period, researchers conducted a school-based prospective study of 708 children with myopia (51.13% girls; average age, 10.11 years) from six primary schools in Northern China. Of 1,161 eyes evaluated, 616 were right eyes, and 545 were left eyes.
All participants underwent comprehensive ophthalmic examinations in 2016 and 2017, which included visual acuity, axial length, autorefraction and OCT. The researchers assessed differences in retinal thickness between high ( –6.00 D) and nonhigh myopia (> –6.00 D), as well as between genders.
According to results, foveal thickness in the inner retina was greater in the high myopia group compared with the nonhigh myopia group (67 m vs. 63 m); however, the high myopia group had thinner parafoveal (106 m vs. 124 m) and perifoveal regions (95 m vs. 104 m). All regions of the outer retina were thicker in the high myopia group.
When assessing progression at 1-year follow-up, 67.53% of children with myopia had 1 D progression and 95.43% had axial length progression. All children exhibited slightly increased retinal thickness, with the researchers reporting that as axial length increased and diopter decreased, the progression of inner and full retinal thickness decreased. By gender, boys had thicker foveal and parafoveal regions.
“The relatively short follow-up period, 1 year, is one of the limitations of the current study,” the researchers wrote. “While 1-year follow up revealed the trend of the changes in the thickness of different retinal regions, the trend would be clearer and more definitive with a longer follow-up period.”
Perspective
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This article does a great job reviewing past research, but offers little impact on current knowledge. There are a few important takeaways that may be beneficial when evaluated in conjunction with future data. The study agrees with past studies in noting that foveal thickness is greater in children with myopia. Their evaluation also confirmed that the greater the amount of myopia, the greater the foveal thickness. Additionally, there was accelerated thinning of the inner retina and full retina with myopia progression, but not the outer retina.
There is little new knowledge that would be applicable to a current practicing optometrist, other than some food for thought. For practitioners currently practicing myopia management in their clinic, it may provide an opportunity to further educate patients about retinal health changes that are associated with increased myopia, providing additional ammunition to justify beginning myopia management therapy.
The study length, at only 1 year, was too short to adequately assess myopia progression and retinal thickness changes. The study participants were also a relatively homogenous group in terms of ethnicity, age and lifestyle. The information collected in this study will be most beneficial in a future meta-analysis.
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