Changes in the vessel densities of macular and optic nerve head and their relationships with axial length in pathological myopia / 中华眼底病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the changes of vessel densities (VD) in the macula and optic disc and its correlation with axial length (AL) in pathological myopia (PM).Methods:A retrospective clinical study. A total of 171 eyes from 171 patients admitted to Department of Ophthalmology of Jinshan Hospital of Fudan University from June 2019 to December 2019 were included in this study. Among them, there were 72 males and 99 females; age was 35.0±10.8 years old. The patients were divided into PM group, high myopia (HM) group and non-HM group, 51 cases with 51 eyes, 70 cases with 70 eyes, and 50 cases with 50 eyes, respectively. Optical coherence tomography angiography was used to scan the macular and optic disc areas of all the examined eyes in the range of 6 mm×6 mm. According to the early treatment of diabetic retinopathy study, the 6 mm macular and optic disc scan range was centered on the macular fovea and optic disc, respectively, then divided into two concentric circles with diameters of 1 mm of central area, an annulus between 1-3 mm circles of paracentral area. The paracentral area was divided into superior, inferior, nasal, temporal four quadrants by 2 radiation lines. The VD of superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), outer retina, and choriocapillaris layer were calculated in the central, superior, inferior, nasal, and temporal areas, respectively. The VD of PM, HM and non-HM groups were compared. The variance analysis was used to compare the VD among the three groups; Pearson’s correlation was used to assess the correlation between VD and AL.Results:The perifoveal VD of the SCP, outer retina and choriocapillaris layers were all lower in the PM than those of HM and non-HM group, and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). The VD of DCP macular central was higher in the PM than in the HM group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P=0.020). In the optic disc, the VD were lower in the PM group than in the non-HM group except for the area of DCP superior, inferior, temporal, outer retinal center, and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). The results of correlation analysis showed that the VD in the DCP macular central, ONH superior and the choriocapillaris ONH central were not correlated with AL ( P=0.647, 0.688, 0.146), and the other VDs were negatively correlated with AL ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Compared with HM and non-HM groups, the majority of VDs in macular and ONH are lower in participants with PM.