Abstract
Purpose :
To study the relationship between retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness of different parapapillary regions and the age
Methods :
The RNFL thickness of 6 × 6mm2 parapapillary area were analyzed by OCT scanning from 120 normal eyes (70 subjects, 22 male/48 female). The RNFL thickness maps (200 × 200 pixels) were read and transferred to be the size of 50× 50 superpixels (each superpixel = 4× 4 pixels) by self-developed software. The RNFL thickness at each superpixel, as well as the circumpapillary RNFL thickness at the radius of 1.73mm was calculated. A linear mixed model with adjustment of correlation between fellow eyes was used to analyze the correlation and the rate of change between the RNFL thickness at each superpixel region and the age.
Results :
The average age of these subjects was 40.52± 12.45 years（Range：22-66 years）. The average circumpapillary RNFL thickness of these eyes was 92.01±8.41µm. The RNFL thickness at the superior-temporal and inferior-temporal region showed a significant negative correlation with the age (P<0.05) (fig.1). In the superior temporal quadrant and inferior-temporal quadrant, the peak negative rate between RNFL thickness and the age located at the region near the optic disc margin, with the rate of -1.06µm/year and -1.88µm/year (P<0.05), respectively. In the most region of the nasal quadrant, no significant relationship was found between the RNFL thickness and the age (P >0.05).
Conclusions :
The retinal nerve fiber layer is thinning with age growing. The linear relationship between retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and the age can be identified in the parapapillary area，specially in the region of the superior-temporal and inferior-temporal quadrant. Aging factor may be easier to be found in the regions with relatively thicker RNFL.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.