Eye shape and peripheral visual field recording in high myopia at approximately 54 years of age, as based on ultrasonography and Goldmann kinetic perimetry.

PURPOSE: This study describes the posterior pole contour and visual field (VF) findings in an unselected series of adults (aged approximately 54 years) with high myopia.

METHODS

In 1962, 39 14-year-old teenagers with myopia of >or=6 D, in one or both eyes, were identified in a 1948 Copenhagen birth cohort (n=9243). At a follow-up in 2002, 61 eyes (52 with high myopia and nine fellow eyes; n=31 subjects) were examined by ultrasound B-scan, to allow: (a) measurement of the axial vitreous length supplementary to the customary axial A-scan, and (b) assessment of the posterior pole contour of the eye. Further, the large-object (V, 4e) kinetic Goldmann perimetry isoptre was recorded to outline the ambulatory VF.

RESULTS

An irregular posterior pole contour was observed in 15 eyes, unilaterally in 11 eyes and bilaterally in four (two subjects). Nasal fundus ectasia was suggested in six and other deviations from the sphere in seven subjects. Kinetic Goldmann perimetry showed marginal restriction in 14 eyes (12 subjects). Larger defects were found in four eyes (three subjects); the corresponding axial lengths exceeded 32 mm in the two subjects with unilateral defects, and symmetrical inferior binasal defects, probably unrelated to the myopia, were found in the bilateral subject.

CONCLUSIONS

Unselected adult-age high myopia mainly presented with a regular eye shape that was close to spherical. An irregular shape suggesting posterior staphyloma was seen in 13 of the 32 subjects under study, mainly unilaterally. No subjects were restricted in everyday activities by VF defects. Marginal Goldmann perimetry restrictions were described in 12 and significant defects in three subjects. Generally, longer eyes more often tended to show irregular posterior eye contours and/or VF defects.