Fundus-Image-Based Retinal Vascular Analysis in Myopic Eyes

Myopia is prevalent worldwide and it is of great significance to prevent, control and intervene myopia in an early stage. The etiopathogenesis of myopia remains unclear and needs further research. Fundus photographs can show biomarkers and lesions of the retina in a non-invasive way directly. To discover some potential changes in myopic eyes, we extracted the retinal vascular features from vessel segmented results, and calculated the Spearman correlation coefficients between the retinal vascular features and the spherical refractive errors. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to explore the difference exists in the characteristics of retinal vessels among the mild, moderate and high myopia groups. The statistical analysis results indicated that the higher the degrees of myopia, the smaller the retinal vessels. This study found vascular changes in myopic eyes through fundus images, which could help to explain the mechanism of myopia and the damage caused by myopia.