Abstract
Knowledge of the normal in vivo thickness of the retina, and its individual layers in pediatric populations is important for diagnosing and monitoring retinal disorders, and for understanding the eye’s normal development and the impact of eye growth and refractive error such as myopia (short-sightedness) upon retinal morphology. In this prospective, observational longitudinal study, total retinal thickness (and individual retinal layer thickness) and the changes in retinal morphology occurring over an 18-month period were examined in 101 children with a range of refractive errors. In childhood, the presence of myopia was associated with subtle but statistically significant (p<0.05) changes in the topographical thickness distribution of macular retinal thickness (and retinal layer thickness), characterised by a thinning of the parafoveal retina (and parafoveal or perifoveal thinning in most outer and inner retinal layers). The parafoveal retina was on average 6 μm thinner in myopic children. However, over 18 months, longitudinal changes in retinal thickness and individual layers were of small magnitude (average changes of less than 2 μm over 18 months), indicative of a high degree of stability in retinal morphology in healthy adolescent eyes, despite significant eye growth over this same period of time. This provides the first detailed longitudinal assessment of macula retinal layer morphology in adolescence, and delivers new normative data on expected changes in retinal structure over time and associated with myopia during this period of childhood development.
Highlights
Myopia is a refractive error that occurs due to excessive axial elongation of the eye, and is one of the most common eye conditions affecting pediatric populations globally [1]
The topographical variations observed in total retinal thickness for all subjects at the baseline visit are illustrated in Fig 3 and Table 1
In this paper we have examined macular retinal thickness using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), in a population of 10–15 year old children with healthy eyes, normal vision and a range of refractive errors, and have explored the topographical thickness variations and the changes in thickness associated with myopia
Summary
Myopia is a refractive error that occurs due to excessive axial elongation of the eye, and is one of the most common eye conditions affecting pediatric populations globally [1]. The increased risk of myopic eyes developing retinal complications later in life (e.g. retinal detachment, myopic maculopathy) [2] provides significant impetus to expand our understanding of the retinal changes associated with childhood myopia. The diagnosis and monitoring of abnormalities with OCT typically involves a comparison between a patient’s global or local retinal morphology (and their changes over time) against a normal reference morphology (normative database). The reliable clinical application and interpretation of OCT measures in pediatric populations relies upon a thorough knowledge of the normative range of structural characteristics of the retina (and retinal layers) in childhood, and the typical changes in structure expected to occur over time during normal childhood development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
