A group of Professor Kyoko Ohno and Assistant Professor Tae Yokoi of Tokyo Medical and Dental University revealed that patients who develop pathological myopia that causes blindness have different fundus findings in childhood than normal myopia. The results were published in the online version of the international scientific journal "Ophthalmology".
"Pathological myopia" is a disorder in which the retina and optic nerve are damaged due to the deformation of the eyeball, resulting in blindness.Even if corrected with glasses, the visual acuity is less than 0.7, which accounts for 20% of the causes of blindness.However, it has not been possible at this stage to distinguish between myopia in children that leads to pathological myopia and those that can be maintained with normal myopia.
This time, the research group analyzed the fundus findings in childhood retroactively in 15 of the visually impaired patients due to pathological myopia who were diagnosed with myopia by the age of 19 and who actually lost their eyesight due to pathological myopia after adulthood. ..We investigated whether there were any findings in childhood that predicted the onset of pathological myopia.As a result, 19 out of 17 patients, more than 80% of the patients, had thinned retinas and yellow discoloration (diffuse atrophic lesions) around the optic nerve by the age of 15.It is said that this is a finding that cannot be seen with normal myopia, which can maintain eyesight with correction.
Patients who are blind due to pathological myopia due to these findings already have characteristics of fundus findings that are different from general schoolchildren's myopia at the time of childhood, and this "diffuse atrophy around the optic nerve" is pathological myopia. It became clear that it was an important sign to signal the onset.
Based on the results of this research, it is possible to identify at an early stage myopia, which has a high risk of causing blindness due to pathological myopia, and normal myopia, which can maintain good visual acuity by correction.In recent years, myopia in children has been on the rise, but care to eliminate the anxiety that "may be blind" is given to children with normal myopia, and its progress is suppressed for children at risk of developing pathological myopia. It is possible to carry out appropriate interventions, such as prophylactic treatment.
