Multimodal Imaging-Based Phenotyping of a Singaporean Hospital-Based Cohort of High Myopia Patients

• Published in: Frontiers in medicine Vol. 8; p. 670229
• Main Authors: Tey, Kai Yuan, Hoang, Quan V, Loh, Isabella Q, Dan, Yee Shan, Wong, Qiu Ying, Yu, Daryle Jason G, Yandri, Vivi R, Ang, Marcus, Cheung, Gemmy C M, Lee, Shu Yen, Wong, Tien Yin, Chong, Rachel S, Wong, Chee Wai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 04-01-2022
• Subjects: high myopia; Medicine; multimodal imaging; myopic macular degeneration; myopic traction maculopathy; pathologic myopia; myopic traction maculopathy; high myopia; myopic macular degeneration; multimodal imaging; pathologic myopia
• ISSN: 2296-858X; 2296-858X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2021.670229

To assess the effect of axial length (AL) on the prevalence of pathologic myopia (PM) and associated myopic features in a Singaporean hospital-based cohort of patient with high myopia (HM).
In total, 923 HM eyes from 495 individuals were recruited from the Myopic and Pathologic Eyes in Singapore (MyoPES) cohort and underwent ocular biometry, fundus photography, fundus autofluorescence, and swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). Images were analyzed for the presence of myopic macular degeneration (MMD), myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV), myopic traction maculopathy (MTM), peripapillary atrophy (PPA), myopic tilted disc, posterior staphyloma (PS), dome-shaped macula (DSM), vitremacular adhesions (VMA), and the epiretinal membrane (ERM). Eyes were stratified into quartiles based on ALs to determine cut-off values to perform comparisons between shorter-length and longer-length groups. A χ
-test was done to determine the difference in the prevalence of pathologies between groups.
Overall, mean AL was 29.2 ± 2.2 mm (range 25.0-36.7 mm). Myopic macular degeneration, PPA, myopic tilted disc, and ERM have AL threshold of ≥27.5 mm, whereas MTM has an AL threshold of ≥29.0 mm. We found that there was a significantly higher prevalence of MMD (88.2 vs. 49.4%;
< 0.001), PPA (98.1 vs. 80.1%;
< 0.001), myopic tilted disc (72.7 vs. 50.2%;
< 0.001), and ERM (81.4 vs. 17.3%;
= 0.003) in eyes with AL ≥ 27.5 mm vs. eyes without AL <27.5 mm. Prevalence of MTM (34.7 vs. 32.1%;
< 0.001), mCNV (17.4 vs. 12.1%;
= 0.03), PS (43.4 vs. 34.7%;
= 0.012), DSM (21.3 vs. 13.2%;
= 0.002), and VMA (5.9 vs. 2.6%;
= 0.014) in eyes with AL ≥ 29.0 mm compared with AL < 29.0 mm.
Our study describes the overall prevalence of PM and related pathologies among patients with HM in our hospital-based cohort. Longer eyes even among HM eyes had a significantly higher prevalence of PM-associated pathologies studied. This supports the premise that eyes with longer AL, even among HM eyes may be at greater risk of vision-threatening changes and therefore merit regular follow-up.