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Most nonpathological eyes present a small area of hyperreflective Henle’s fiber layer on pupil-centered optical coherence tomography

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Abstract

Purpose

Henle’s fiber layer (HFL) is hyporeflective and indistinct on pupil-centered optical coherence tomography (OCT). However, a small area of HFL is also found to be hyperreflective on pupil-centered OCT. This study characterized the hyperreflective HFL of healthy eyes on pupil-centered OCT and investigated the possible physiological and functional relationship of hyperreflective HFL.

Methods

Subjects with different degrees of ametropia underwent a complete ophthalmologic examination, including binocular function by synoptophore and Titmus test, ocular axial length, refractions, and pupil-centered OCT angiography coupled with OCT. The area of hyperreflective HFL was manually plotted and calculated using the Optovue AngioVue system technology. The possible ocular physiological and functional relationship with the area of hyperreflective HFL was investigated.

Results

A total of 111 subjects (222 eyes) without other ocular diseases were enrolled, of which 164 eyes (74%) presented hyperreflective HFL. The average area of hyperreflective HFL was 0.71 ± 0.07 mm2. The area of hyperreflective HFL was significantly related to spherical diopters (P = 0.032). The average binocular area of hyperreflective HFL was 1.38 ± 0.17 mm2. The binocular area of hyperreflective HFL was significantly related to the angle of superposition and far stereoacuity (P = 0.013 and 0.038, respectively).

Conclusion

Most healthy eyes present a small area of hyperreflective HFL, which might be due to alternation of the orientation of some Henle fibers by ametropia during the development of visual function postpartum. The small area of hyperreflective HFL may serve as a marker in identifying the boundary of HFL on OCT.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Department of Ophthalmology in the First Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

    Xuanli Liu, Qin Zhu, Peirong Lu & Jingyan Yao

  2. Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, Service d’Ophtalmologie du Nouvel Hôpital Civil, Strasbourg Cedex, France

    David Gaucher

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  1. Xuanli Liu
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  4. David Gaucher
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Contributions

XL drafted the article and revised it critically; QZ acquired the data and interpreted of data; PL reviewed the manuscript and gave final approval of the version to be submitted; DG gave the conception and designed the study; and JY conceived and designed the analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jingyan Yao.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All participants and parents of participants under 16 years were informed the purpose of the project and gave their written consent to be recruited to this study, which was approved by the ethics committee of the First Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Soochow, China. The performance of this study was followed the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Liu, X., Zhu, Q., Lu, P. et al. Most nonpathological eyes present a small area of hyperreflective Henle’s fiber layer on pupil-centered optical coherence tomography. Int Ophthalmol 42, 3941–3950 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-022-02378-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-022-02378-3

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