Age-related rarefaction in retinal vasculature is not linear

The fractal dimension is a global measure of complexity and is useful for quantifying anatomical structures, including the retinal vascular network. A previous study found a linear declining trend with aging on the retinal vascular fractal dimension (DF); however, it was limited to the older population (49 years and older). This study aimed to investigate the possible models of the fractal dimension changes from young to old subjects (10–73 years). A total of 215 right-eye retinal samples, including those of 119 (55%) women and 96 (45%) men, were selected. The retinal vessels were segmented using computer-assisted software, and non-vessel fragments were deleted. The fractal dimension was measured based on the log–log plot of the number of grids versus the size. The retinal vascular DF was analyzed to determine changes with increasing age. Finally, the data were fitted to three polynomial models. All three models are statistically significant (Linear: R(2) = 0.1270, 213 d.f., p < 0.001, Quadratic: R(2) = 0.1536, 212 d.f., p < 0.001, Cubic: R(2) = 0.1529, 211 d.f., p < 0.001). The quadratic regression is significantly better than the linear regression (p < 0.001); however, the increase in R(2) from the quadratic model to the cubic model is not significant (p = 0.97). These results suggest that the decreasing trend of the fractal dimension associated with aging is better explained by the quadratic model than by the linear and cubic models in a sample with a broader age spectrum.