title: The effect of age and conjunctivochalasis on conjunctival thickness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the effect of age and conjunctivochalasis (CCh) on conjunctival thickness.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and nineteen normal subjects aged 60-79 years and 83 subjects with CCh graded I-II (39 males and 44 females) aged 60-79 years were recruited. Cirrus HD-optical coherence tomography 4000 was used to measure the thickness of the lower temporal conjunctiva 3-5 mm from the corneal limbus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The conjunctiva was significantly thicker in normal subjects compared to CCh patients (p < 0.0001), and in normal subjects aged 60-69 years compared to normal subjects aged 70-79 years (p = 0.0466). There was no significant difference between age groups for patients with CCh (p = 0.1001). After subdividing groups by age, normal subjects had a thicker conjunctiva compared to CCh patients for those aged 60-69 years (p = 0.0152) as well as those aged 70-79 years (p = 0.0120).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The conjunctiva is thinner in older subjects and subjects with CCh.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Putuo Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xing-Ru
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhen-Yong
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: Qing-Song
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Huan-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000473:pathology*; D003229:Conjunctival Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence