[Research progress in diagnostic key points of pediatric pathological myopia]

Pathological myopia has become one of the leading causes of irreversible blinding eye disease in China, yet its early diagnosis, especially in children, remains an urgent clinical challenge. Currently, clinical diagnosis is predominantly based on typical macular lesions and visual acuity decline, which often leads to irreversible visual function damage at the time of diagnosis. Furthermore, there has long been a lack of early diagnostic criteria specifically tailored to the pediatric population. This article systematically reviews the research progress on the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of pathological myopia in recent years. It proposes three core clinical manifestations for early childhood pathological myopia: early-onset high myopia in childhood, excessively rapid progressive axial elongation, and characteristic fundus changes, and constructs an early diagnostic system based on multi-indicator combination. It also systematically elaborates on the key points of differential diagnosis and prospects the application of multimodal imaging and artificial intelligence in early screening and dynamic monitoring of the disease, providing a reference for the early identification and timely intervention of childhood pathological myopia.