EURETINA 2024: Kyoko Ohno-Matsui, MD, PhD, shares a keynote on cutting-edge technologies for pathologic myopia

At this year's European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA) meeting, a number of keynote speakers presented on a wide array of topics. Kyoko Ohno-Matsui, MD, PhD, delivered the Euretina Lecture for 2024, titled "Pathologic Myopia: New Horizons through Cutting-Edge Imaging Technologies." In this video interview, she tells Ophthalmology Times Europe about new approaches to ocular imaging for myopia, and looks ahead to future EURETINA meetings.

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Kyoko Ohno-Matsui, MD, PhD: Hi, my name is Kyoko Ohno-Matsui. I'm from Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan. In my keynote lecture, I talked about cutting-edge technologies for pathologic myopia, and especially, I used ultrawidefield OCT and a novel technology called polarisation-sensitive OCT, or PS-OCT. And, actually PS-OCT visualises scleral collagen fibres, so we can see what's going on in the scleral fibres in human eyes. It's a new technology, and before, just a segment of scleral was possible to see with usual OCT, but with this device, we can differentiate inner and outer layers of sclera, and how different layers of sclera play a role in the pathogenesis of scleral abnormalities.

So this was exciting. In addition, pathological myopia is a deformity of the eye shape. So with 3D MRI, we can see the entire shape of the eye from any angle and how it is deformed in each patient. This information is important, because we may be able to treat the shape of the eye before vision-threatening complications. So I'm very excited to deliver a keynote lecture at this EURETINA conference.

After the lecture, I have had many responses from participants. They say that the images are very stunning. And actually, pathological myopia is a disorder which is suitable for ocular imaging, because that retina choroid sclera is thin. So we can see deeper, and we can see deeper tissue clearly. So it's a benefit for pathological myopia. I like [to] study pathological myopia, because I like imaging too. So I appreciate these responses.

This EURETINA Congress is really exciting, because Europe is a diverse continent with many countries. I really feel the diverse culture when many people get together, and not only from Europe. Americans come, and many Asians are here too. So it's [a] really globally diverse congress, and the programme is well thought out. I see many myopia sessions as well, which I think is new. Before, myopia was thought to be specific to Asian countries, but now it's becoming more prevalent in many areas. So I am glad to see many myopia sessions.

And Barcelona itself is a beautiful city. It has a beautiful beach and port, and I really enjoy the food too. I like the Mediterranean diet, so I'm very happy to be here. I feel very comfortable in this EURETINA congress.

Since this EURETINA congress is very good, and all aspects of retina are presented here, I hope that more and more Asian colleagues should attend. I'm from Japan, but maybe next year we will help more Japanese and more Asians to attend. Truly, it [will be] a global retinal meeting, in the future.