A comparison of retinal vascular oxygen saturation between myopic children and adults.

BACKGROUND

The objective of this study was to investigate the differences in retinal vascular oxygen saturation between myopic children and adults, and to evaluate the effect of age.

METHODS

This cross-sectional observational study involved a total of 520 participants, comprising both myopic children and adults. The right eyes of all participants were included and categorized into three groups based on their spherical equivalents (SE): the low myopia group (SE > -3.00 D), the moderate myopia group (-6.00 D < SE ≤ -3.00 D), and the high myopia group (SE ≤ -6.00 D). The low myopia group consisted of 200 participants, evenly split between 100 children and 100 adults. The moderate myopia group included a total of 180 participants, with an equal distribution of 90 children and 90 adults. Finally, the high myopia group comprised 140 participants, divided equally into 70 children and 70 adults.The retinal arteriolar oxygen saturation (SaO2) and the retinal venous oxygen saturation (SvO2), along with spherical equivalent (SE), axial length (AL), intraocular pressure (IOP), central corneal thickness (CCT), and average keratometry values (Avek) were analyzed in this study.

RESULTS

Across all three groups, SaO2 was significantly higher in adults than in children (low myopia: P < 0.001; moderate myopia:P < 0.001; high myopia:P = 0.048). No significant differences were found in SvO2 or the arterio-venous difference. Furthermore, multivariate regression analysis revealed that age was a significant positive predictor of SaO2 in the moderate (Beta = 0.235, P = 0.002) and high myopia groups (Beta = 0.628, P < 0.001), but not in the low myopia group. Spearman’s correlation confirmed a positive association between age and SaO2 in all groups (low: r = 0.206, P = 0.003; moderate: r = 0.262, P < 0.001; high: r = 0.668, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

At comparable levels of myopia, SaO2 was higher in adults than in children. Furthermore, in moderate and high myopia groups, SaO2 showed a positive correlation with age. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study has received approval from the Medical Ethics Committee of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Approval No 2021yh022).