Abstract
Purpose :
To study the distribution of choroidal thickness in normal eyes over an extended retinal region and a wide range of ages.
Methods :
Normal subjects were imaged using a prototype swept source OCT system from Carl Zeiss Meditec (Dublin, CA). The OCT system had a central wavelength of 1050nm and supported acquisition of 12mmx12mmx3mm raster scans. Each scan used a 512x512 homogeneous sampling scheme. A novel algorithm was developed to segment the anterior and posterior boundaries of the choroid over the full OCT datasets.
Results :
Ninety-two eyes of ninety-two normal subjects, with ages between 21 and 88 years old, were enrolled in the study. Subjects were stratified by age in seven different decades: 20 through 29, 30 through 39, 40 through 49, and so on, up to 80 through 89. At least 10 subjects were enrolled for each decade. Within each age group, mean choroidal thickness was computed over different retinal regions defined by an ETDRS like target.
Conclusions :
There is a considerable variability in the choroidal thickness of normal eyes at different retinal locations, in all age groups, as well as between age groups. Previous studies have almost exclusively been limited to choroidal thickness under the central fovea. The quantitative description of normal choroidal thickness over different retinal regions, and its local dependence on age, is important for our understanding of normal retinal anatomy, and should prove useful in the study of disease onset, progression, and response to therapies.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.