Macular thickness measurements in healthy Norwegian volunteers: an optical coherence tomography study

Abstract

BackgroundEthnic, intersubject, interoperator and intermachine differences in measured macular thickness seem to exist. Our purpose was to collect normative macular thickness data in Norwegians and to evaluate the association between macular thickness and age, gender, parity, and contraception status.MethodsRetinal thickness was measured by Stratus Optical Coherence Tomography in healthy subjects. Mean macular thickness (MMT) was analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA with three dependent regional MMT-variables for interaction with age, gender, parity and oral contraception use. Exploratory correlation with age by the Pearson correlation test, both before and after stratification by gender was performed. Differences in MMT between older and younger subjects, between oral contraception users and non-users, as well as parous and nulliparous women were studied by post-hoc Student's t-tests.ResultsCentral MMT in Norwegians was similar to values earlier reported in whites. MMT in central areas of 1 and 2.25 mm in diameter were higher in males than in females. In younger subjects (≤43 years) differences in MMT between genders were larger than in the mixed age group, whereas in older subjects (>43 years) the small differences did not reach the set significance level. No differences were found in minimal foveolar thickness (MMFT) between the genders in any age group.Mean foveal thickness (1 mm in diameter) was positively associated with age in females (r = 0.28, p = 0.03). MMFT was positively associated with age in all groups and reached significance both in females and in mixed gender group (r = 0.20, p = 0.041 and r = 0.26, p = 0.044 respectively).Mean foveal thickness and MMFT were significantly higher in parous than in nulliparous women, and age-adjusted ANOVA for MMFT revealed a borderline effect of parity.ConclusionsAge and gender should be taken into consideration when establishing normal ranges for MMT in younger subjects. The gender difference in retinal thickness in young, but not older adults suggests a gonadal hormonal influence. The possible association between parity and retinal structure and its clinical relevance, should be studied further.

Relationship between macular thickness measurement and signal strength using Stratus optical coherence tomography

“…This finding is supported by those of previous studies that found that males have thicker foveal measurements than female counterparts 20,24,25. As the difference in retinal thickness between genders seems to be greater in younger populations (as opposed to older adults), it has been suggested that a gonadal hormonal influence may contribute to this finding 24…”

Alteration of retinal layers in healthy subjects over 60 years of age until nonagenarians

“… 5 Also, thickness changes of all retinal layers can be measured in a 1, 3, and 6 mm diameter grid, although there is a high concordance in measured mean macular thickness in the central areas by the shorter (3.45 mm) and the longer (6 mm) scan length mapping protocols. 21 A further limitation in our study was using neither a longitudinal nor epidemiological design.…”

Effect of Age on Individual Retinal Layer Thickness in Normal Eyes as Measured With Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

“…The partial correlation test was used to determine the effect of age on individual layer thickness with spherical equivalent (SE), 8 , 2 2 Topcon ima ge QF, 8 , 2 3 , 2 4 and sex 2,4,5,9,15,[25][26][27][28][29] as confounders, since these parameters are known to influence OCT thickness measurements. Bonferroni corrections were applied to counteract the effect of multiple testing with statistical significance set at P < 0.001.…”