Citation: Yamashita T, Asaoka R, Tanaka M, et al. Relationship between position of peak retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and retinal arteries on sectoral retinal nerve fiber layer thickness. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013;54:5481-5488. DOI:10.1167/ iovs.12-11008 PURPOSE. We determined the relationship between the position of the peak of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and the retinal arteries, axial length (AL), and sectoral RNFL thickness in healthy eyes.
METHODS.A prospective, observational cross-sectional study (registration number, UMIN000006040) of 50 healthy right eyes (mean age 25.8 6 3.7 years) was performed. The RNFL thickness was measured by optical coherence tomography in twelve 308 sectors (clock hours) around the optic disc. The RNFL nasal-superior-temporal-inferior-nasal curves and fundus photographs were used to measure the angles between the supratemporal and infratemporal peak RNFL positions (peak angle), and the retinal artery angle (artery angle), respectively. The relationships between the peak angle, artery angle, AL, and sectoral RNFL thickness were investigated by linear regression analyses.RESULTS. The peak angles were highly correlated with the artery angle (r ¼ 0.92, P < 0.001) and correlated negatively with the AL (r ¼ À0.49, À0.38; P < 0.01). After excluding the effect of the AL, the peak and artery angles were correlated significantly with the sectoral RNFL thickness in 8 sectors. After excluding the effect of the peak angle, the AL was correlated significantly with the sectoral RNFL thicknesses in only one sector.CONCLUSIONS. The temporal RNFL thickness increased as the superior and inferior RNFL peaks, and retinal arteries shifted toward the fovea, whereas an inverse relationship was observed for the inferior and supranasal areas. The sectoral RNFL thickness is correlated better with the peak and artery angles than the axial length. (https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr/ctr. cgi?function¼brows&action¼brows&type¼summary&recptno¼R000007154&language¼J number, UMIN000006040.) Keywords: glaucoma, image analysis, myopia, optical coherence tomography, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness T he Tajimi study in Japan found that the incidence of myopia in the Japanese population was the highest in the world, with an incidence of 41.8% for myopia > À0.5 diopters (D) and 5.5% for myopia > À6.0 D in individuals ‡ 40 years. 1 The Tajimi study also found that myopia was a risk factor for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) confirming other population-based studies that individuals with myopia have a 2-to 3-fold higher risk of glaucoma than nonmyopic individuals.1-3 Considering the increasing prevalence of myopia over the world, a correct diagnosis of glaucoma in myopic patients is becoming more important and necessary in ophthalmology. 1,4,5 However, it is difficult to assess the optic disc changes and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) alterations accurately in myopic eyes, because the RNFL can be altered by the myopic changes in eyes without glaucoma. In addition, the ...