Abstract
Purpose :
To quantify the retinal vessel density (VD) and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) dimensions in normal subjects according to age using OCT angiography (OCTA).
Methods :
74 healthy subjects (128 eyes) were recruited. All eyes underwent OCTA using AngioVue® with split-spectrum amplitude-decorrelation algorithm (SSADA) and motion correction technology (MCT). The enface images of the retina vasculature were generated using AngioAnalytics research software with 3D projection artifacts removal (PAR) from the OCTA volume data and automatic segmentation of the ILM, IPL, and OPL boundaries. OCTA scans were analyzed and the VD and FAZ area were calculated.
Results :
108 normal eyes were included (mean age 48 ± 20 years). The mean VD was 15.683 ± 1.691 mm-1 in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP), 15.224 ± 1.435 mm-1 in the intermediate capillary plexus (ICP), and 16.370 ± 1.919 mm-1 in the deep capillary plexus (DCP) in 3x3-mm OCTA scans. Mean FAZ area was 0.277 ± 0.090 mm2. The annual rate of decrease in VD with increasing age was -0.23% in the SCP, -0.22% in the ICP and -0.29% in the DCP. The rate of increase in FAZ area was 0.25% per year.
Conclusions :
This analysis employed novel software to eliminate projection artifact and provides for the first time normative data on the ICP in addition to the SCP and DCP. VD of the macula decreases with increasing age while the FAZ area increases with age.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.