Abstract
Purpose :
Recent advances of optical coherence tomography (OCT) allow evaluating the microvasculature of the retina and choroid noninvasively. The capillaries of the retina and choroid are clearly visible by using OCT angiography (OCTA) which has been applied to various retinal and choroidal diseases for diagnosis or understanding pathophysiology. The aim of this study is to investigate how age affects the microvasculature of the retina and choroid in Japanese normal subjects.
Methods :
Ninety-seven eyes of 97 Japanese normal subjects were studied. They consisted 51 women and 49 men ranging in age from 27 to 84 years. OCTA was recorded using swept-source OCT (PLEX Elite 9000, Zeiss) to obtain 3X3 mm and 12X12 mm enface images. Size of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) was measured in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) of the 3x3 mm image by means of embedded software in Advanced Retinal Imaging network. The vascular density (VD) of the capillaries of the retina and choroid was determined by using binary thresholding method embedded in ImageJ. These values obtained by OCTA images were plotted against age to evaluate correlations.
Results :
he FAZ size significantly enlarged with advancing age (R=0.28, P<0.01). The VD of the superficial and deep capillary plexus (DCP) showed negative and significant correlations with age in both 3X3 mm (R=-0.52, P<0.0001 for SCP; R=-0.40, P<0.001 for DCP) and 12X12 mm images (R=-0.35, P<0.01 for SCP; R=-0.44, P<0.001 for DCP). The VD of the choriocapillaris significantly decreased with advancing age in the 3X3 mm section (R=-0.32, P<0.01).
Conclusions :
Our results indicate that age affects the retinal and choroidal microvasculature in the macula as well as the posterior pole of the ocular fundus in the normal subjects. This suggests that age-matched control data is required for discriminating diseased eyes from normal eyes based on the OCTA parameters, such as the VD and FAZ size.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.