J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2012 May;53(5):639-646.

Analysis of Factors Associated with Variability in Measures Obtained by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

• Lee YJ

Abstract

PURPOSE
To identify factors associated with variability in measures obtained by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).
METHODS
One hundred ninety-six subjects (370 eyes) with no ophthalmic evidence of retinopathy and with corrected visual acuities better than 0.6 were included. Macular thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness were measured using SD-OCT and were analyzed according to sex, laterality, age, spherical equivalent and signal strength.
RESULTS
The central subfield thickness was significantly lower in the female subjects (r = -0.260, p = 0.000). As age increased, average inner and outer macular thickness increased significantly (r = 0.153, p = 0.010; r = 0.193, p = 0.001). Spherical equivalent correlated negatively with central subfield thickness (r = -0.352, p = 0.000) but correlated positively with average inner macular thickness, average outer macular thickness, overall average thickness, overall macular volume, and average RNFL thickness (r = 0.181, p = 0.002; r = 0.287, p = 0.000; r = 0.346, p = 0.000; r = 0.341, p = 0.000; and r = 0.261, p = 0.000, respectively). Signal strength correlated negatively with average inner macular thickness (r = -0.136, p = 0.023).
CONCLUSIONS
SD-OCT shows that retinal thickness is related to age, sex, spherical equivalent and signal strength. Analysis of retinal thickness by SD-OCT should be interpreted in the context of these findings.

Keyword

Age; Sex; Signal strength; Spectral domain optical coherence tomography; Spherical equivalent

MeSH Terms

Female
Humans
Nerve Fibers
Retinaldehyde
Tomography, Optical Coherence
Visual Acuity
Retinaldehyde

Figure

• 

  Figure 1 ETDRS subfields within standard 1-, 3-, and 6-mm-diameter concentric circles at the right used for reporting retinal thickness. ETDRS = Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study. F = fovea; SI = superior inner; NI = nasal inner; II = inferior inner; TI = temporal inner; SO = superior outer; NO = nasal outer; IO = inferior outer; TO = temporal outer.

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