Purpose: To determine the relationship between choroidal thickness (ChT) at the posterior pole and refractive error and to explore the difference between the macular and peripapillary regions in children with myopia.
Methods: A total of 340 healthy Chinese children underwent a series of comprehensive ocular examinations including cycloplegic refraction. Swept-source optical coherence tomography was used to measure the ChT in the macular and peripapillary regions. The Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study grid was applied to define the sectors.
Results: The mean spherical equivalent (SE) of the participants was -1.71 ± 2.22 diopter (D; range from -7.63 to 4.25 D). The mean ChT in the central foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal regions were 229 ± 65 μm, 227 ± 60 μm, and 215 ± 50 μm, respectively, and the mean global peripapillary choroidal thickness (PPCT) was 136 ± 33 μm. The choroid in the macular region and the global PPCT was thinner in myopes compared to hyperopes. The area between the central fovea and the optic disc underwent the largest change as myopia worsened. SE, uncorrected visual acuity, cornea curvature radius (CR), retinal thickness (RT), and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT, except for the central fovea) were the independent factors of ChT in the macular region. SE, CR, RT, and RNFLT were the independent factors of PPCT temporally, inferiorly, and globally, while only CR, RT, and RNFLT were independently associated with PPCT superiorly and nasally.
Conclusions: Choroidal thinning might be uneven during the development of myopia. SE only influenced the macular area and sectors temporal and inferior to the optic disc.