title: AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN CHOROIDAL VASCULAR DENSITY OF HEALTHY SUBJECTS BASED ON IMAGE BINARIZATION OF SWEPT-SOURCE OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the vascular density of the choroid in a healthy population using swept-source optical coherence tomography.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, noninterventional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  best-corrected visual acuity between 20/20 and 20/25, spherical equivalent between ±3 diopters, no systemic or ocular diseases, and ages ranging between 3 and 85 years. One hundred and thirty-six eyes from 136 subjects were analyzed, 86 eyes (63.2%) were from male and 50 eyes (36.8%) from female subjects. The eyes were divided into different age groups to analyze the possible age-related changes. Twelve-millimeter horizontal, fovea-centered B-scans were used. Choroidal stroma and vessel area analysis involved automated segmentation and binarization using validated algorithms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age was 33.1 ± 24.5 years. Mean choroidal area was 0.5554 ± 0.1377 mm. Mean stromal area was 0.2524 ± 0.0762 mm, and mean vascular region area was 0.3029 ± 0.0893 mm. The percentage of choroidal vascularity (vascular area/total area) was 54.40 ± 8.35%. Choroid area, vascular region, and percentage of choroidal vascular density were statistically higher in the <18-year-old group versus the >18-year-old group (P < 0.001). The stromal region was not different (P = 0.46). In the same way, choroid area, vascular region, and percentage of choroidal vascular density between the 5 age groups were statistically different (P < 0.001), showing larger figures in the 0 to 10-year-old group, but not stromal region (P = 0.71). There were no gender-related differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The luminal area and the percentage of vascular/total area decrease with increasing age, while the stromal area remains stable.
authors.affiliation: Jules Gonin Eye Hospital, Fondation Asile des Aveugles, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Medrano
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Castilla La Mancha University, Albacete, Spain.|Vissum Corporation, Spain.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Moreno
authors.affiliation: Smt. Kanuri Santhamma Retina Vitreous Centre, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Abhilash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goud
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
authors.forename: Kiran Kumar
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Vupparaboina
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
authors.forename: Soumya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jana
authors.affiliation: Smt. Kanuri Santhamma Retina Vitreous Centre, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chhablani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002829:Choroid / Q000098:blood supply*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult