This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Study: RNFL thickness varies by age, race in normal eyes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
A recently published study attempting to determine the effects of age, sex and race on the retinal nerve fiber layer in healthy eyes found that thinner measurements were associated with older age, being Caucasian and being myopic.
Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness was measured by spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Multiple regression analysis was applied to assess the effects of age, sex, ethnicity and mean refractive error on peripapillary RNFL thickness.
The study involved 190 healthy participants between 9 and 86 years old, including 62 men, 125 Caucasians, 26 African Americans, 14 Hispanics, 16 Asians and nine of various other races.
The thickest RNFL measurements were found in the inferior quadrant, followed by the superior, nasal and temporal quadrants.
Mean RNFL thickness in the study was 97.3 µm. Thinner RNFL measurements were associated with older age (P < .001), and for every decade of increased age, mean RNFL thickness measured thinner by approximately 1.5 µm.
Thinner RNFL measurements were also associated with being Caucasian vs. being either Hispanic or Asian (P = .02 and .009, respectively), as well as being more myopic (P < .001).
There was no relationship between RNFL thickness and sex.
“SD-OCT analysis of the normal RNFL showed results similar to time domain OCT studies,” the study authors added.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts