Purpose

The purpose of this article is to evaluate optic nerve head (ONH) characteristics in an ethnically diverse cohort of young U.S. adults.

Methods

In this study, 409 myopes and 206 nonmyopes (median age 22 years) completed measures including biometry and spectral domain optical coherence tomography from enface (ovality and torsion) and cross-sectional (tilt and crescent width) scans. Associated factors were evaluated using multivariable models.

Results

In myopic versus nonmyopic right eyes, median tilt (6.0° vs. 2.4°; P < 0.0001) and frequency of crescents (49% vs. 10%; P < 0.0001) were higher in myopes. Right eyes with crescents had higher median tilts (8.8° [myopic], 9.0° [nonmyopic]) than those without crescent (2.5° [myopic], 2.1° [nonmyopic]), irrespective of refractive group (both P < 0.0001). Torsion was similar between groups, with a slight difference in ovality (0.89 vs. 0.91; P < 0.03). Data in the left eyes were similar, and modeling was done only for the right myopic eyes. Multivariable models showed that an increased tilt was associated with ethnicity (P < 0.001), the presence of crescent (P < 0.001), and smaller ONH diameter (P < 0.0031), with interactions between ethnicity and crescent (P = 0.002). Specifically, ONH tilt was significantly higher in Asian eyes without crescent (P < 0.0001 for all comparisons), and crescent width was associated with increased tilt in non-Asian eyes (P < 0.02). Crescent width was associated with ethnicity (greatest in Asians) and disc tilt. Interactions were observed between tilt and ethnicity, whereby tilt had a greater effect on crescent width in non-Asian eyes, and crescent width was associated with increased tilt in non-Asian eyes.

Conclusions

The data clarify the influence of ethnicity and myopia on ONH characteristics in young adults and may inform future studies of biomechanical properties or of retinal pathology of the myopic eye.