J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2013 Jul;54(7):1066-1073. 10.3341/jkos.2013.54.7.1066.

Changes of Peripapillary Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness Profile According to Aging in Myopic Eyes

• Bae EJ
• Yoo YC

• KMID: 2217417
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2013.54.7.1066

Abstract

PURPOSE
To evaluate the effects of age on the distributional variability of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RFNL) thickness measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in myopia.
METHODS
Only the right eye of 64 myopic patients with long axial length (> or =24.5 mm) was included in the present study. The patients were divided into 2 age groups, 20 to 39 years of age and 40 to 59 years of age. Eventually, 42 subjects were selected and matched based on the difference of axial length not exceeding 0.5 mm between subjects in each group. The RFNL thickness was measured using Stratus OCT and average thickness, angular locations of double humps, and false-positive rate were compared.
RESULTS
In both groups, the distribution of RNFL thickness in a double hump pattern was observed, which had a deviation to the temporal side only in the younger myopic eye group, but not in the middle-aged group. The middle-aged group had significantly thinner RNFL in 1, 7, and 8 clock-hour sectors compared to the younger myopic eyes (p < or = 0.02). Probability of abnormal OCT parameters at the 5% level of the 2 groups with the built-in RNFL normative database was not significantly different.
CONCLUSIONS
The variability of RFNL thickness distribution related to axial length was less observed in the middle-aged group than the younger-aged group. These results should be considered in glaucoma diagnosis when using OCT.

Keyword

Aging; Glaucoma; Myopia; Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL); Stratus OCT

MeSH Terms

Aging
Eye
Glaucoma
Humans
Myopia
Nerve Fibers
Retinaldehyde
Tomography, Optical Coherence
Retinaldehyde

Figure

• 

  Figure 1. Comparison of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness profile between 2 groups. ◆(black diamond) = Group A, aged 20 to 39 years; ■(gray square) = Group B, aged 40 to 59 years. The standard deviation of each group was expressed with dotted (Group A) and straight lines (Group B). A sig-nificant difference of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness be-tween the young and old patients was revealed at 1 hour ( p = 0.020), 7 ( p = 0.001), and 8 ( p = 0.005) clock-hour sectors.

Reference

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