Abstract
Purpose
To examine healthy subjects for normal macular thickness values and determine the effects of gender and age in a Turkish population, using spectral optical coherence tomography/scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (OCT/SLO).
Material and method
Six hundred fourteen eyes of 307 subjects with no history of ocular diseases and normal ophthalmic examination were recruited in this cross-sectional, prospective study. The participants were divided into three groups based on age (between 20 and 29 years: group 1, between 30 and 39 years: group 2, between 40 and 49 years: group 3). All subjects were scanned with spectral OCT/SLO, performed by one examiner to acquire the retinal thickness map in the ETDRS grid, and values were recorded for nine sectors, and effects of age and gender were evaluated.
Results
When all the subjects were evaluated, the thicknesses were lower in women than men in all sectors (p < 0.001). When divided in groups based on age, this difference remained only in the outer segments. However, the differences in outer layers, except outer nasal layer, were thicker in women in group 3 when compared to others in group 3. When compared between groups, only central thickness in group 3 was shown to be higher than group 1 (p = 0.06). There was no significant difference of thicknesses in any sector when compared right and left eyes of all subjects.
Conclusions
The study reports the variation in retinal thickness between age and gender in a relatively large sample of a Turkish population. It is important to consider these effects while interpreting the OCT images to make an appropriate diagnosis in retinal diseases.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Huang D, Swanson EA, Lin CP, Schuman JS, Stinson WG, Chang W, Hee MR, Flotte T, Gregory K, Puliafito CA et al (1991) Optical coherence tomography. Science 254:1178–1181
Asrani S, Zou S, d’Anna S, Vitale S, Zeimer R (1999) Noninvasive mapping of the normal retinal thickness at the posterior pole. Ophthalmology 106:269–273
Wojtkowski M, Srinivasan V, Fujimoto JG, Ko T, Schuman JS, Kowalczyk A, Duker JS (2005) Three-dimensional retinal imaging with high-speed ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography. Ophthalmology 112:1734–1746
Kashani AH, Zimmer-Galler IE, Shah SM, Dustin L, Do DV, Eliott D, Haller JA, Nguyen QD (2010) Retinal thickness analysis by race, gender, and age using Stratus OCT. Am J Ophthalmol 149:496–502
Ooto S, Hangai M, Sakamoto A, Tomidokoro A, Araie M, Otani T, Kishi S, Matsushita K, Maeda N, Shirakashi M, Abe H, Takeda H, Sugiyama K, Saito H, Iwase A, Yoshimura N (2010) Three-dimensional profile of macular retinal thickness in normal Japanese eyes. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 51(1):465–473
Song WK, Lee SC, Lee ES, Kim CY, Kim SS (2010) Macular thickness variations with sex, age, and axial length in healthy subjects: a spectral domain-optical coherence tomography study. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 51:3913–3918
Ooto S, Hangai M, Tomidokoro A, Saito H, Araie M, Otani T, Kishi S, Matsushita K, Maeda N, Shirakashi M, Abe H, Ohkubo S, Sugiyama K, Iwase A, Yoshimura N (2011) Effects of age, sex, and axial length on the three-dimensional profile of normal macular layer structures. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52:8769–8779
Wagner-Schuman M, Dubis AM, Nordgren RN, Lei Y, Odell D, Chiao H, Weh E, Fischer W, Sulai Y, Dubra A, Carroll J (2011) Race- and sex-related differences in retinal thickness and foveal pit morphology. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52(1):625–634
Choovuthayakorn J, Watanachai N, Chaikitmongkol V, Patikulsila D, Kunavisarut P, Ittipunkul N (2012) Macular thickness measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography in healthy Thai eyes. Jpn J Ophthalmol 56:569–576
Adhi M, Aziz S, Muhammad K, Adhi MI (2012) Macular thickness by age and gender in healthy eyes using spectral domain optical coherence tomography. PLoS ONE 7:e37638
Demirkaya N, van Dijk HW, van Schuppen SM, Abràmoff MD, Garvin MK, Sonka M, Schlingemann RO, Verbraak FD (2013) Effect of age on individual retinal layer thickness in normal eyes as measured with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 54:4934–4940
Wexler A, Sand T, Elsås TB (2013) Macular thickness measurements in healthy Norwegian volunteers: an optical coherence tomography study. BMC Ophthalmol 10:13
Gupta P, Sidhartha E, Tham YC, Chua DK, Liao J, Cheng CY, Aung T, Wong TY, Cheung CY (2013) Determinants of macular thickness using spectral domain optical coherence tomography in healthy eyes: the Singapore Chinese Eye study. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 54:7968–7976
Appukuttan B, Giridhar A, Gopalakrishnan M, Sivaprasad S (2014) Normative spectral domain optical coherence tomography data on macular and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in Indians. Indian J Ophthalmol 62:316–321
Ooto S, Hangai M, Yoshimura N (2015) Effects of sex and age on the normal retinal and choroidal structures on optical coherence tomography. Curr Eye Res 40:213–225
Wang J, Gao X, Huang W, Wang W, Chen S, Du S, Li X, Zhang X (2015) Swept-source optical coherence tomography imaging of macular retinal and choroidal structures in healthy eyes. BMC Ophthalmol 15:122
Kiernan DF, Mieler WF, Hariprasad SM (2010) Spectral domain optical coherence tomography: a comparison of modern high resolution retinal imaging systems. Am J Ophthalmol 149:18–31
Cikmazkara I, Ugurlu SK (2016) Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in patients with iron deficiency anemia. Indian J Ophthalmol 64(3):201–205
Sung KR, Wollstein G, Bilonick RA, Townsend KA, Ishikawa H, Kagemann L, Noecker RJ, Fujimoto JG, Schuman JS (2009) Effects of age on optical coherence tomography measurements of healthy retinal nerve fiber layer, macula, and optic nerve head. Ophthalmology 116(6):1119–1124
Pierro L, Giatsidis SM, Mantovani E, Gagliardi M (2010) Macular thickness interoperator and intraoperator reproducibility in healthy eyes using 7 optical coherence tomography instruments. Am J Ophthalmol 150:199–204
El-Ashry M, Hegde V, James P, Pagliarini S (2008) Analysis of macular thickness in British population using optical coherence tomography (OCT): an emphasis on interocular symmetry. Curr Eye Res 33(8):693–699
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Çubuk, M., Kasım, B., Koçluk, Y. et al. Effects of age and gender on macular thickness in healthy subjects using spectral optical coherence tomography/scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. Int Ophthalmol 38, 127–131 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-016-0432-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-016-0432-z