Abstract
Purpose :
Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness has become an important clinical parameter, particularly for the management of glaucoma. The purpose of the current study was to examine the retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and its associations in school children in provincial Western China.
Methods :
The Gobi Desert Children Eye Study was a school-based cohort study. At the 2013 baseline study, all the students in the oasis region of Ejina underwent comprehensive ocular examinations, including cycloplegic refraction, intraocular pressure and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (Heideberg Spectralis) scans of the optic disc and macula. The peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT) was measured on a circular scan (diameter 3.4 mm) around the optic disc with the embedded Heideberg software.
Results :
Out of 1565 participants, RNFLT data were available for1440 (92%) children (738 boys) with a baseline mean age of 11.8±2.5 years (range: 6-18 years). The mean RNFLT was 101.26 μm (SD 9.23, range 61-144 μm) and 101.19μm (SD 9.01, range 58-144 μm) for the right and left eye respectively (P=0.83). The mean RNFLT in the right eye was thickest at temporal inferior (157.32 μm), followed by temporal superior (143.83 μm), nasal inferior (109.74 μm), nasal superior (106.91 μm), temporal (85.18 μm) and nasal (61.67 μm). The distribution pattern of the left eye was the same as the right eye. It was significantly thicker in girls than in boys (101.78 vs 100.8, P=0.045). In a multivariate analysis, the RNFLT in the right eye significantly increased with refractive diopters (P<0.001, B=1.595), lower intraocular pressure (P=0.003, B=-0.021) and female gender (P=0.002, B=1.444), but not significantly associated with age (P=0.98), body height (P=0.88), systolic blood pressure (P=0.32) and subfoveal choroidal thickness (P=0.09).
Conclusions :
The study provides normative data on peripapillary RNFLT in school-age Chinese children. The RNFL thickness significantly increased with refractive diopters, lower intraocular pressure and female gender, but not significantly associated with age, body height, systolic blood pressure and subfoveal choroidal thickness.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.