Evaluation of choroidal thickness in children with myopia

Objective: to assess the thickness of the choroid in children with myopia of various degrees. Material and methods. We examined 28 children (56 eyes) with myopia of varying degrees aged 9 to 11 years, 16 girls, 12 boys. Four groups have been formed. Group I (n=12 eyes) consisted of children with progressive mild myopia. Group II (n=22 eyes) consisted of children with progressive moderate myopia. Group III (n=14 eyes) consisted of children with progressive high myopia. Group IV was the control group, it (n=8 eyes) consisted of children with hyperopia. To determine the subfoveolar thickness of the choroid (TC), an optical coherence tomograph REVO NX (Optopol Technology, Poland) was used, and an apparatus ZEISS IOL Master 700 was used to measure the anterior-posterior axis (АРА) of the eye. Results. TC in myopia is, on average, 134.9±16.2 urn less than TC in hypermetropia. In group I, the subfoveolar TC was 290.3±30.2 urn, the АРА was 24.6±0.3 mm. In group II, TC -260.2±44.4 urn, АРА-25.3±0.6 mm. In group III, TC - 234.8±55.1 urn, АРА-26.7±0.8 mm. A significant decrease in the index of subfoveolar TC was revealed in groups II and III compared with the control group IV (p=0.03). Conclusion. With progressive moderate and high myopia, there is a significant decrease in the subfovelarTC, compared with hyperopic refraction.