Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the effect of age and optic disc size on optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements in a large, normal, mixed-race population, and evaluate the strength of correlations across measurement types.
Methods :
Eight hundred sixty-two healthy eyes were enrolled from nine clinics across the United States. Patient ages ranged from 22 to 85 years old, with a mean age of 51.7 years. All participants had eye examinations to confirm no ocular pathology was present. Subjects were imaged on the Monaco® device, a novel imaging device with an ultra-widefield scanning laser ophthalmoscope (UWF-SLO) capability combined with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Correlations were analyzed between both age and optic disc size against various OCT measurements including retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness, and optic nerve head (ONH) parameters.
Results :
The highest correlations for age comparisons were for superior, inferior, and average GCC thickness parameters with Pearson coefficient r-values being 0.33, 0.35, and 0.36, respectively. Correlations were also strong for average and superior quadrant RNFL thickness at r=0.27 and r=0.31, respectively. Correlations for age and ONH parameters were poor. Correlations for optic disc size were strongest for the ONH parameters with rim area, vertical C/D ratio, horizontal C/D ratio, and average C/D ratio with r-values at 0.48, 0.37, 0.40 and 0.44, respectively. Correlations were also strong for optic disc size and superior and inferior RNFL quadrant parameters (r=0.23 and 0.26, respectively) and average RNFL thickness (r=0.26).
Conclusions :
Correlations for age and OCT measurements were similar and generally strong for average RNFL thickness, as well as superior and inferior RNFL quadrants. The strongest correlations found were between optic disc size and ONH parameters, suggesting that during the clinical assessment of a patient, it may be helpful to consider the size of the optic disc more than age, especially for ONH parameters like C/D ratios. This may also have implications for reference database comparisons provided by the OCT software.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.