Abstract
Purpose :
Trajectory of the supra and infra temporal retinal artery is associated with the position of the nerve fiber layer defects in glaucomatous eyes. However, there is no report about the changes of retinal artery trajectory (RAT) along with growth. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the difference of the RAT between elementary and junior high school students’ eyes and its association with axial length.
Methods :
Prospective cross-sectional observational study of 122 right eyes in healthy elementary school students, 61 male and 61 female (age 8 or 9 years) and 170 right eyes in healthy junior high school students, 83 male and 87 female (age 12 or 13 years). Axial length was measured with OA-2000 (TOMEY, Japan). Color fundus photograph was taken by 3D OCT-1 Maestro (TOPCON, Japan). The RAT was plotted in the color fundus photographs and fitted to a second degree polynomial equation (ax2/100+bx+c) by ImageJ. The coefficient “a” represented the steepness of the trajectories. The RAT and axial length differences between elementary and junior high school students were investigated using Mann-Whitney U test. The association between RAT and axial length was investigated using Spearman’s correlation analysis.
Results :
The axial length and RAT of junior high school students were significantly greater than that of elementary school students (p<0.001). The RAT was significantly associated with axial length in elementary (R=0.26, p=0.005) and junior high school students (R=0.32, p<0.001).
Conclusions :
Junior high school students have longer axial length and narrower RAT than elementary school students. A longer axial length is associated with narrower RAT in elementary and junior high school students.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.