Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate individual retinal layers in a cohort of healthy subjects and to investigate age dependent changes.
Methods :
We included 63 healthy individuals with an spectral-domain OCT scan of both eyes consisting of standardized volume scans of the central 20° x 20° with 49 B-scans and an average 9-15 frames per B-scan (ART). Individual retinal layers were segmented automatically within an ETDRS grid using the Heidelberg Eye Explorer software. Retinal nerve fiber layer, retinal ganglion cell layer, inner plexiform layer, inner nuclear layer, outer plexiform and outer nuclear layer were analyzed within the inner and outer ring of the ETDRS grid. Inter-individual variability, age and gender dependency were analyzed with multivariate regression analysis.
Results :
126 eyes of 63 individual (25:39; f:m), with a mean age of 52.86 ± SD 16.27 years and a range between 20 to 85 years were included. The mean thickness of all layers within the inner ring and outer ring were analyzed. The correlation between individual layers within the same patients was high in all layers ranging from r2= 0.1469 for the inner ring of the outer plexiform layer to r2= 0.8195 for the outer ring of the outer nuclear layer. There was an age dependency of the RGCL and RNFL layers in the inner ring (r2=-0.244 , p<0.001). There was no correlation of any layers with gender.
Conclusions :
Automated retinal layer segmentation revealed a high correlation between layers within each individual. In the inner ring there was a decrease of RNFL and RGCL thickness with age. This needs to be taken into account in studies analyzing macular RGCL and RNFL using automated retinal layer segmentation.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.