Macular Thickness Assessment in Healthy Eyes Based on Ethnicity Using Stratus OCT Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

The fovea is significantly less thick in African Americans and females than in Caucasians and males. Racial and sexual differences should be considered when interpreting an OCT scan.

Retinal thickness measurement and evaluation of natural history of the diabetic macular edema through optical coherence tomography

“…Kelty (2008) suggested thinner retinas in older patients, women, African-Americans and individuals with myopia of -5.00 dioptries or more.…”

“…More recent studies suggested that, in order to compare retinal thickness, it is necessary to consider gender, since their results showed thickness values significantly greater in men (8)(9) . Kelty (2008) suggested thinner retinas in older patients, women, African-Americans and individuals with myopia of -5.00 dioptries or more.…”

“…Despite the fact that visual acuity works as a modest indicator of retinal thickness, it does not surrogate quantitative values, given that other variables, such as age, time of retinal ischemy, leakage presented in the angiogram and glycosylated hemoglobin, also interfere in the visual acuity (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10) . Hence, visual acuity can be taken into account as an important variable in the mild and moderate stages of non proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), but may be considered as a poor indicator in advanced stages of diabetic maculopathy.…”

Optical Coherence Tomography Findings in Diabetic Macular Edema

“…It has been reported that men have thicker retinas than women (Browning et al, 2008;Guedes et al, 2003;Hee et al, 1995;Kelty et al, 2008;Massin et al, 2002;Ooto et al, 2010). However, Chan and coauthors and Grover and coauthors did not detect significant inter-sex difference in retinal thickness, but their studied groups had uneven sex distribution (Chan et al, 2006;Grover et al, 2010).…”

“…It has been reported that Blacks and Asians have thinner retinas compared with whites in age-matched groups (Asenfzadeh et al, 2007;Guedes et al, 2003;Kelty et al, 2008). Thus, race may be taken into consideration while interpreting OCT thickness measurements.…”