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. 2019 Dec 19;9(1):19440.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55484-1.

Associations with photoreceptor thickness measures in the UK Biobank

Sharon Y L Chua  1 , Baljean Dhillon  2   3 , Tariq Aslam  4   5 , Konstantinos Balaskas  1   6 , Qi Yang  7 , Pearse A Keane  1 , Adnan Tufail  1 , Charles Reisman  7 , Paul J Foster  1 , Praveen J Patel  8 ; UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium
Collaborators, Affiliations

Associations with photoreceptor thickness measures in the UK Biobank

Sharon Y L Chua et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) provides high resolution images enabling identification of individual retinal layers. We included 32,923 participants aged 40-69 years old from UK Biobank. Questionnaires, physical examination, and eye examination including SD-OCT imaging were performed. SD OCT measured photoreceptor layer thickness includes photoreceptor layer thickness: inner nuclear layer-retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) and the specific sublayers of the photoreceptor: inner nuclear layer-external limiting membrane (INL-ELM); external limiting membrane-inner segment outer segment (ELM-ISOS); and inner segment outer segment-retinal pigment epithelium (ISOS-RPE). In multivariate regression models, the total average INL-RPE was observed to be thinner in older aged, females, Black ethnicity, smokers, participants with higher systolic blood pressure, more negative refractive error, lower IOPcc and lower corneal hysteresis. The overall INL-ELM, ELM-ISOS and ISOS-RPE thickness was significantly associated with sex and race. Total average of INL-ELM thickness was additionally associated with age and refractive error, while ELM-ISOS was additionally associated with age, smoking status, SBP and refractive error; and ISOS-RPE was additionally associated with smoking status, IOPcc and corneal hysteresis. Hence, we found novel associations of ethnicity, smoking, systolic blood pressure, refraction, IOPcc and corneal hysteresis with photoreceptor thickness.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.Y.L.C. and T.A. report no conflict of interest. K.B. reports speaker fees/travel grants/research grants from Novartis, Bayer, Heidelberg, Topcon, Alimera. Q.Y. reports employment by Topcon Medical Systems, Inc. outside the submitted work. P.A.K. reports personal fees from Allergan, personal fees from Topcon, personal fees from Heidelberg Engineering, personal fees from Haag-Streit, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Bayer, personal fees from Optos, personal fees from DeepMind, grants from National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), outside the submitted work. C.R. reports employment by Topcon Medical Systems Inc., outside submitted work. P.J.F. reports personal fees from Allergan, Carl Zeiss, Google/DeepMind and Santen, a grant from Alcon, outside the submitted work; P.J.P. reports grants from Topcon Inc, outside the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography images with schematic showing representative of Inner nuclear layer–Retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE); Inner nuclear layer- External limiting membrane (INL-ELM); External limiting membrane-Inner and outer segments (ELM-ISOS); and Inner and outer segments-Retinal pigment epithelium thickness (ISOS-RPE).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowchart showing photoreceptor inclusion and exclusion criteria. D = dioptre; EDTRS = Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study; IOP = intraocular pressure; logMAR = logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution; OCT = optical coherence tomography; SD = spectral-domain.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Diagrams showing Inner nuclear layer–Retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) thickness (µm) at the central, inner and outer subfields across the 4 sectors.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Graphs showing the mean Inner nuclear layer–Retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) thickness (µm) in the (A) central, (B) average inner, and (C) average outer subfields by age. Error bars indicate 95% confidence interval.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Graphs showing the mean Inner nuclear layer–Retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) thickness (µm) in the (A) central, (B) average inner, and (C) average outer subfields by IOPcc (mmHg). Error bars indicate 95% confidence interval.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Graphs showing the mean Inner nuclear layer–Retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) thickness (µm) in the (A) central, (B) average inner, and (C) average outer subfields by refraction (D). Error bars indicate 95% confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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