Age and Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness Measured by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose: To evaluate the association between age and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness measured by Cirrus high-definition (HD) spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) in healthy Korean subjects. Methods: A total of 302 eyes from 155 healthy Korean subjects (age range, 20 to 79 years) underwent RNFL thickness measurements using the Cirrus HD-OCT. Average, quadrant, and clock-hour RNFL thickness parameters were analyzed in terms of age using linear mixed effect models. Results: Average RNFL demonstrated a slope of -2.1 μm per decade of age (p < 0.001). In quadrant analysis, superior (-3.4 μm/decade, p < 0.001) and inferior (-2.9 μm/decade, p < 0.001) quadrants showed steeper slopes, whereas temporal (-1.1 μm/decade, p < 0.001) and nasal (-1.0 μm/decade, p < 0.001) quadrants revealed shallower slopes. Among the 12 clock-hour sectors, clock hours 6 (-4.5 μm/decade, p < 0.001) and 1 (-4.1 μm/decade, p < 0.001) showed the greatest tendency to decline with age; RNFLs of the 3 (-0.2 μm/decade, p = 0.391) and 4 (-0.6 μm/decade, p = 0.052) o’clock hour sectors did not show significant decay. Conclusions: RNFL thickness was associated with age, especially in superior and inferior areas. The topographic distribution of correlation between age and RNFL thickness was not uniform.