Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec 1;98(12):1366-1370.
doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001818.

Evaluation of Average Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Measurement in Eyes with Refractive Errors

Alexander A Shpak, Maria V Korobkova  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of Average Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Measurement in Eyes with Refractive Errors

Alexander A Shpak et al. Optom Vis Sci. .

Abstract

Significance: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) play an important role in the diagnosis of glaucoma and optic atrophy. However, the interpretation of these measurements in patients with refractive errors, especially of a high degree, presents great difficulties. Optical coherence tomography instruments from most manufacturers do not take into account the effect of refractive errors, especially of a high degree, on quantitative measurements of pRNFL.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a simple and easy method for evaluation of average pRNFL in eyes with refractive errors.

Methods: Average pRNFL was measured by Cirrus HD-OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., Dublin, CA) in 183 healthy White subjects (183 eyes) older than 40 years, with an axial length of the eye from 22.5 to 24.5 mm and spherical equivalent of refraction from -1.63 to 2.0 D.

Results: For an average pRNFL, normative database of eyes with refraction close to emmetropia was constructed. The calculated first and fifth percentiles for age groups 41 to 50, 51 to 60, 61 to 70, and 71 to 85 years were 81 and 83, 79 and 81, 78 and 80, and 76 and 79 μm, respectively. Littmann-Bennett formula was modified to calculate a table containing first and fifth percentiles for eyes with axial lengths of 19 to 30 mm in the same age groups.

Conclusions: For the correct interpretation of the measurements of pRNFL in patients with refractive errors, an original table was proposed, which provides a quick assessment of the results obtained on the Cirrus HD-OCT device. The proposed new formulas make it easy to calculate a similar table for any optical coherence tomography device using existing databases or after collecting a normative database of eyes with refraction close to emmetropia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None of the authors have reported a financial conflict of interest.

References

    1. Leung CK, Mohamed S, Leung KS, et al. Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Measurements in Myopia: An Optical Coherence Tomography Study. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2006;47:5171–6.
    1. Savini G, Barboni P, Parisi V, et al. The Influence of Axial Length on Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer Thickness and Optic-disc Size Measurements by Spectral-domain OCT. Br J Ophthalmol 2012;96:57–61.
    1. Tsai DC, Huang N, Hwu JJ, et al. Estimating Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Normal Schoolchildren with Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography. Jpn J Ophthalmol 2012;56:362–70.
    1. Taş M, Oner V, Türkcü FM, et al. Peripapillary Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Hyperopic Children. Optom Vis Sci 2012;89:1009–13.
    1. Akashi A, Kanamori A, Ueda K, et al. The Ability of SD-OCT to Differentiate Early Glaucoma with High Myopia from Highly Myopic Controls and Nonhighly Myopic Controls. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2015;56:6573–80.

LinkOut - more resources