[Use of optical coherence tomography to study variations of normal parameters with age].
OBJECTIVE
To determine by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) the variation of a variety of measurable parameters (macular thickness, retinal parapapillary fiber layer thickness and optic disc morphology) with age.


METHODS
We carried out OCT in 40 normal subjects (80 eyes) aged between 20 and 60 years, divided into 4 groups according to the age decades.


RESULTS
Statistically significant differences were found in the macular thickness in the comparative study groups but the differences varied according to the sector assessed; the superior outer sector (p=0.00), temporal outer sector (p=0.01), temporal inner sector (p=0.04), nasal inner sector (p=0.03) and inferior inner sector (p=0.00). In the study of retinal parapapillary fiber layer thickness, statistically significant differences were found between groups in the inferior sector only (p=0.04). No statistically significant differences were found between groups in the study of optic disc morphology.


CONCLUSIONS
Both the macular thickness and the nerve fiber layer in the inferior sector decrease with age. These differences in thickness are statistically significant between the extremes of age decades.
Baquero Aranda
I M
IM
Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria de Málaga, Facultad de Medicina, Cátedra de Oftalmología, Málaga.
Morillo Sánchez
M J
MJ
García Campos
J M
JM
D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009412:Nerve Fibers; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012160:Retina / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence