Peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer thickness measurement with SD-OCT in normal and glaucomatous eyes: distribution and correlation with age

AIM: To determine peripapillary retinal fiber layer thickness (RNFL) measured with spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD -OCT) in normal and glaucomatous eyes in a large sample of exclusively white population and compare results with other similarly constructed studies. METHODS: Average, maximum, minimum and per quadrant RNFL thickness were measured in normal and glaucomatous Greek patients with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO)/SD-OCT device. The effect of age in normal RNFL thickness was also determined. RESULTS: A total of 278 normal (278 patients) and 67 glaucomatous (67 patients) eyes were included in the study. Average RNFL thickness was 114.8 +/- 13.3 mu m in normal and 92.1 +/- 18.5 mu m in glaucomatous eyes(P<0.001). In normal discs, superior quadrant was the thickest, followed by the inferior, nasal and temporal. Decline of normal RNFL thickness with age was statistically significant for average RNFL thickness (1.92 mu m per decade of life) and for the superior and inferior quadrants of the disc. CONCLUSION: SD -OCT peripapillary RNFL measurements can be used to distinguish between normal and glaucomatous eyes and establish normative databases, since normal disc measurements differ between different ethnic groups and between different SD-OCT devices.