Abstract
Purpose :
A posterior staphyloma has been reported to be present in some eyes with inherited retinal degeneration even though the eyes were not highly myopic. The purpose of this study was to determine the macular curvature of non-highly myopic eyes with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and to determine whether the curvature was related to other characteristics of the eye.
Methods :
This is a retrospective, observational study. We reviewed the medical charts of the right eyes of patients with RP and normal controls whose axial length ranged from 21.5 mm to 26.0 mm. The mean curvature of Bruch’s membrane within 6 mm of the central macular obtained from the horizontal optical coherence tomographic (OCT) images were evaluated as the mean macular curvature index (MMCI). The relationships between the MMCI and other clinical factors including axial length, age, best-corrected visual acuity, visual field, and OCT parameters were determined.
Results :
There were significant differences in the MMCI between the eyes of the 60 controls (-6.63±5.63 x10-5 1/μm) and the 143 RP patients (-13.73±9.63 x10-5 1/μm), which indicated a steeper concave shape of the macular in RP eyes (P<0.001). The MMCI was significantly and negatively correlated with the axial length (r=-0.24; P=0.0044) and significantly and positively correlated with the age (r=0.2; P=0.016) but not significantly correlated with the EZ width in RP eyes. However, more detailed analysis showed a nonlinear effect of the EZ width on the MMCI in RP eyes. The MMCI of eyes with the width of the EZ that ranged from 1312 to 3842 µm (middle EZ group) was significantly lower than that of eyes with shorter or longer EZ (P <0.05). Multiple linear regression analyses confirmed the significant correlation between the middle EZ length and longer axial length and lower MMCI.
Conclusions :
The results indicate that there is a high incidence of steep macular curvature in RP eyes and the steepness of macular curvature in RP was correlated with the width of the EZ and the axial length.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.