Purpose To quantitatively analyze the characteristics of the retinal large Gaussian curvature annular region (RLCA) in myopic patients using ultra-widefield swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). Methods Patients with myopia underwent 24 mm × 20 mm macular OCTA, and retinal curvature (RC) maps were generated. Key RLCA parameters, mean radius (r mean ) and radial distance (R) from the maximum RC point (RCmax) to the fovea, were quantified and correlated with axial length (AL), RCmax, and central macular retinal curvature (RCc). Results A total of 68 patients (136 eyes) were included in this study. The r mean exhibited a significant negative correlation with both RCmax and RCc. In contrast, no statistically significant correlation was observed between the r mean and AL. Furthermore, R showed significant negative correlations with AL, RCmax, and RCc. Notably, r mean was strongly and positively correlated with R. Additionally, RCmax demonstrated a significant negative correlation with AL but a significant positive correlation with RCc. Conclusions The retinal morphology in the “retinal doughnut” region may be associated with the inherent morphological development of the eye to a large extent. Specifically, the smaller eyes exhibited larger RCc and RCmax values along with a smaller r mean , whereas the larger eyes showed the opposite pattern. Nevertheless, AL may be associated with local morphological changes within this region, which are mainly reflected in the RCmax area.
Liu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.