Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 17, 2025
10:11
Fundus Photography as a Convenient Tool to Study Microvascular Responses to Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Epidemiological Studies
Published on: October 22, 2014
19.3K
Fundus Refraction Offset as a Personalized Biomarker for 12-Year Risk of Retinal Detachment
Fabian Yii1,2, Ian J C MacCormick1,2,3, Niall Strang4
1Robert O. Curle Ophthalmology Suite, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science
|July 1, 2025
Summary
A novel metric, fundus refraction offset (FRO), predicts higher retinal detachment (RD) risk. A more negative FRO indicates increased risk, even with similar refractive error, suggesting an anatomical myopia definition is beneficial.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Medical Imaging
- Biostatistics
Background:
- Retinal detachment (RD) is a serious ocular condition with significant risk factors.
- Current risk stratification relies heavily on refractive error, such as spherical equivalent refraction (SER).
- A novel anatomical metric, fundus refraction offset (FRO), has been proposed to assess refractive error from fundus images.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the utility of fundus refraction offset (FRO) in predicting the risk of retinal detachment (RD) or breaks.
- To determine if FRO provides additional risk stratification beyond established factors like spherical equivalent refraction (SER).
Main Methods:
- Utilized UK Biobank data (n=9320) with a 12-year follow-up for RD/breaks onset.
- Employed a deep learning model to predict SER from fundus photographs and calculated FRO.
- Applied Cox regression to analyze the association of baseline FRO with RD/breaks, adjusting for SER, age, sex, and cataract surgery.
Main Results:
- A more negative baseline FRO was independently associated with an increased risk of any RD/breaks (aHR=0.66) and rhegmatogenous RD/breaks (aHR=0.61).
- These associations remained significant even after adjusting for SER, age, sex, cataract surgery, and macular thickness in subgroup analyses.
- The mean follow-up time to RD/breaks onset was 7.0 years.
Conclusions:
- A more negative fundus refraction offset (FRO) is a significant independent predictor of increased risk for retinal detachment (RD) and breaks.
- FRO offers valuable risk stratification for RD beyond conventional metrics like spherical equivalent refraction (SER).
- These findings support the potential benefit of adopting an anatomical definition of myopia for risk assessment.
