TEN-YEAR LONGITUDINAL MORPHOLOGIC CHANGES IN DOME-SHAPED MACULAS IN HIGHLY MYOPIC EYES

To determine the longitudinal changes in the morphologic features of dome-shaped macula in highly myopic eyes.

Patients with a dome-shaped macula and high myopia (spherical equivalent <-8 diopters [D] or axial length ≥26.5 mm) were retrospectively studied. The medical records, optical coherence tomographic images, and ultra-widefield optical coherence tomography images were analyzed.

A total of 113 eyes of 82 patients were studied with a mean follow-up of 122.32 ± 6.36 months. During the follow-up, the mean dome height was significantly increased from 181.51 ± 105.55 to 209.85 ± 130.84 µ m ( P < 0.001). There was also a significant increase in the axial length (30.83 ± 1.82-31.16 ± 1.86 mm; P < 0.001). Subgroup analyses showed that the dome height increased more than 50 µ m in 78 (69%) eyes, decreased in 23 (20%) eyes, and was stable in 12 (11%) eyes. The change in the axial lengths was significantly greater in the increased dome height group than in the decreased and stable dome height groups ( P = 0.042). Multivariable analysis showed that the greater axial length change (OR, 8.73; P = 0.017) and horizontal type dome-shaped macula (OR, 4.14; P = 0.026) were significantly associated with an increase in dome height.

The direction of change in the dome-shaped macula height varies and 69% of the eyes had an increase in height, whereas 20% of the eyes had a decrease in height. The variations in the dome height may result from the difference between the deepening of the peridome scleral excavation and the changes of the axial length.