Macular thickness measurements in healthy eyes using spectral optical coherence tomography.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to measure macular thickness in healthy eyes and find whether it changes with age.

Material And Methods: We examined 163 healthy eyes of 84 healthy volunteers. In order to measure their macular thickness the patients were examined using spectral-domain optical coherent tomography (SD-OCT - iVue, Optovue). They were allocated into 6 age groups.

Results: The mean central macular thickness (inner circle - fovea centralis) was 248.9 +/- 17.9 microm (mean +/- SD), and the mean total macular thickness (an area including 9 subfields as defined by ETDRS) was 286.2 +/- 13.9 microm (mean +/- SD). We found that it correlated negatively with age (r = - 0.18; p = 0.03; Pearson correlation).

Conclusion: We found a statistically significant decrease of mean macular thickness as age increased.