Centre for Eye Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia.
School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):558. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79424-6.
Current descriptions of retinal thickness across normal age cohorts are mostly limited to global analyses, thus overlooking spatial variation across the retina and limiting spatial analyses of retinal and optic nerve disease. This retrospective cross-sectional study uses location-specific cluster analysis of 8 × 8 macular average grid-wise thicknesses to quantify topographical patterns and rates of normal, age-related changes in all individual retinal layers of 253 eyes of 253 participants across various age cohorts (n = 23-69 eyes per decade). Most retinal layers had concentric spatial cluster patterns except the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) which displayed a nasal, asymmetric radial pattern. Age-related thickness decline mostly occurred after the late 4th decade, described by quadratic regression models. The ganglion cell layer (GCL), inner plexiform layer (IPL), inner nuclear layer (INL), and outer nuclear layer + Henle's fibre layer (ONL) were significantly associated with age (p < 0.0001 to < 0.05), demonstrating similar rates of thickness decline (mean pooled slope = - 0.07 µm/year), while the IS/OS had lesser mean pooled thickness slopes for all clusters (- 0.04 µm/year). The RNFL, OPL, and RPE exhibited no significant age-related thickness change, and the RNFL were significantly associated with sex. Analysis using spatial clusters compared to the ETDRS sectors revealed more extensive spatial definition and less variability in the former method. These spatially defined, clustered normative data and age-correction functions provide an accessible method of retinal thickness analysis with more spatial detail and less variability than the ETDRS sectors, potentially aiding the diagnosis and monitoring of retinal and optic nerve disease.
目前对正常年龄组的视网膜厚度的描述大多仅限于整体分析，因此忽略了视网膜的空间变化，并限制了视网膜和视神经疾病的空间分析。本回顾性横断面研究使用特定位置的 8×8 黄斑平均网格厚度的聚类分析，定量分析了 253 名参与者的 253 只眼中所有单个视网膜层的空间模式和正常、年龄相关性变化率，这些参与者跨越了多个年龄组（每十年 23-69 只眼）。除了视网膜神经纤维层（RNFL），大多数视网膜层都具有同心的空间聚类模式，后者表现出鼻侧、非对称的放射状模式。年龄相关性厚度下降大多发生在 40 岁后期以后，这可以通过二次回归模型来描述。节细胞层（GCL）、内丛状层（IPL）、内核层（INL）和内核层+Henle 纤维层（ONL）与年龄显著相关（p<0.0001 到<0.05），表明厚度下降率相似（平均合并斜率为-0.07 µm/年），而内节/外界膜（IS/OS）的所有聚类的平均合并厚度斜率较小（-0.04 µm/年）。RNFL、外丛状层（OPL）和视网膜色素上皮（RPE）与年龄无显著相关性，而 RNFL 与性别显著相关。与 ETDRS 区域相比，使用空间聚类进行的分析显示出前者方法具有更广泛的空间定义和更小的变异性。这些空间定义的、聚类的正常数据和年龄校正函数提供了一种易于访问的视网膜厚度分析方法，与 ETDRS 区域相比具有更多的空间细节和更小的变异性，可能有助于视网膜和视神经疾病的诊断和监测。
