Abstract
Purpose:
To measure the thickness of normal human conjunctiva and tenon’s capsule in vivo by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and to study its correlation with age and sex.
Methods:
Forty eyes of 40 healthy Japanese subjects (24 men and 16 women) with a mean age of 60.8±17.4 years (range, 25-83 years) were studied. SD-OCT scan images of superior bulbar conjunctiva at the 12-o'clock position were obtained using anterior segment module. The averaged thickness of each bulbar conjunctiva and tenon’s capsule at three locations, that is, 500 µm, 1000µm and 1500µm posterior to the scleral spur, was used for the analysis.
Results:
The mean thickness of bulbar conjunctiva and tenon’s capsule was 206±60.6µm (range, 103-363µm) and 113.3±45µm (range, 43-229µm) respectively. Both measurements showed significant age-related decrease (conjunctiva, R(2) = 0.27; tenon’s capsule, R(2) = 0.34; both P < 0.001). Sex was not associated with age-related changes in both measurements.
Conclusions:
SD-OCT can be used to measure the thickness of human conjunctiva and tenon’s capsule in vivo. Both superior bulbar conjunctiva and tenon’s capsule showed age-related thinning in healthy Japanese subjects.
Keywords: 552 imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) •
474 conjunctiva •
413 aging