Abstract
Purpose :
Our earlier study showed arcade vessel shifted toward the fovea according as axial length increased (Yamashita T et al, IOVS 2013). And the retinal vessel shift (RVS) was affected by the position of nerve fiber layer defect in glaucomatous eyes (Yamashita T et al, IOVS 2015). However, to our knowledge, there is no report on the changes of RVS along with growth. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate RVS and its association with axial length elongation in junior high school students.
Methods :
Prospective observational study comprised 168 right eyes. All participants underwent optical axial length measurement and color fundus photography in the first grade (age 12 or 13) of junior high school. The same examinations were done for the same subjects 2 years later at the third grade (age 14 or 15). RVS was assessed using color fundus photographs. Mann-Whitney U test was used to detect the significant difference of axial length and its elongation between RVS(+) and RVS(-) groups.
Results :
Eighty three eyes were categorized as RVS(+) group and the remaining 85 eyes as RVS(-) group. The axial length of eyes at the first grade, baseline, was significantly longer in the RVS(+) group than the RVS(-) group (24.76±1.14 mm and 24.40±1.26 mm respectively, P=0.04). The length of axial length elongation from the first to the third grade was not significantly different between the RVS(+) group and the RVS(-) group (0.30±0.17 mm and 0.28±0.19 mm, respectively, P=0.30).
Conclusions :
About half of the junior high school students revealed the RVS in two years from the first to the third grade. Although the degree of axial elongation did not affect the change of RVS, the longer axial length at baseline (the first grade) was associated with RVS in the following two years. The myopic eye at baseline may have a more chance to develop RVS in growing.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.