Quantitative in vivo retinal thickness measurement in chinese healthy subjects with retinal thickness analyzer

To measure the retinal thickness of the posterior pole in healthy Chinese subjects using a retinal thickness analyzer and to compare the retinal thicknesses between different age, gender, and refractive error groups.

Between February 2002 and September 2004, healthy Chinese subjects (age range, 21-50 years), underwent measurements of visual acuity, refractive error, intraocular pressure, and posterior pole retinal thickness with the RTA, as well as ophthalmoscopy and slit lamp examinations. Eleven retinal thickness parameters were directly derived from the reports of the RTA measurement. The average value of each parameter was compared between the male and female groups, the emmetropia and low-myopia groups, and the three age groups (21-30, 31-40, and 41-50 years). Linear regression analysis was also applied to determine the effect of age on 11 parameters. Some participants were also enrolled in the reproducibility assessment procedure.

The 272 eyes of 272 subjects (mean age, 34.4 years) were included. The intraclass correlation coefficients of intravisit and intervisit reproducibility were 0.95 and 0.88, respectively. The average retinal thicknesses at the foveola and fovea are 147.6 and 160.0 microm, respectively. No significant difference was found in any of the parameters between the different gender groups, emmetropia and low-myopia groups, or age groups. Regression analysis revealed no significant negative linear correlation between any of the parameter values and age.

The retinal thickness of macular region in the Chinese is a little lower than in Westerners, but not statistically significant. The Chinese retinal thickness was not gender or refractive error related.