The relationship among axial length, corneal curvature, and ocular fundus changes at the posterior pole and in the peripheral retina.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether fundus findings in moderately to highly myopic eyes are more likely to occur in the posterior pole or peripheral retina and to describe the type and frequency of ocular fundus variations. METHODS: Patients qualified for inclusion if the refractive error was 6.00 D or greater of myopia or the axial length was 26 mm or greater Data collection included refractive correction, corneal curvature, axial length, and stereoscopic ocular fundus evaluation. RESULTS: Twenty eyes of 10 male patients and 36 eyes of 20 female patients met eligibility criteria. Mean age of all subjects was 36 +/- 15 years (range, 17 to 83 years). All eyes had best-corrected visual acuity of at least 20/25. Spherical equivalent refractive correction (SERC) was -8.07 +/- 2.11 diopters (range, -6.37 to -16.00) and -7.92 +/- 2.27 diopters (-5.50 to -16.00) for right and left eyes, respectively. Mean axial length was 26.39 +/- 1.14 mm (range, 24.27 to 30.02) and 26.36 +/- 1.26 mm (range, 24.41 to 30.67) for right and left eyes, respectively. Of 56 eyes examined, 25 (44.7%) exhibited only findings at the posterior pole alone; 13 eyes (23.2%) had no findings by our criteria; 12 eyes (21.4%) had findings in the periphery alone; and 6 eyes (10.7%) had posterior-pole and periphery findings. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that fundus findings in moderately to highly myopic eyes were more prevalent in the posterior pole alone versus the retinal periphery alone, or than those occurring in both the posterior pole and retinal periphery. This study also confirms that the most-prevalent posterior pole lesion is optic nerve head (ONH) crescent and the most-frequent peripheral retinal change is lattice degeneration. This information may be useful when evaluating and following patients with moderate-to-high degrees of myopia-especially after surgical refractive modification.