In:
Frontiers in Medicine, Frontiers Media SA, Vol. 8 ( 2021-12-15)
Abstract:
Purpose: To characterize the sex- and age-related alterations of the macular vascular geometry in a population of healthy eyes using fundus photography. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 610 eyes from 305 healthy subjects (136 men, 169 women) who underwent fundus photography examination and was divided into four age groups (G1 with age ≤ 25 years, G2 with age 26–35 years, G3 with age 36–45 years, and G4 with age ≥ 46 years). A self-developed automated retinal vasculature analysis system allowed segmentation and separate multiparametric quantification of the macular vascular network according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS). Vessel fractal dimension (D f ), vessel area rate (VAR), average vessel diameter (D m ), and vessel tortuosity (τ n ) were acquired and compared between sex and age groups. Results: There was no significant difference between the mean age of male and female subjects (32.706 ± 10.372 and 33.494 ± 10.620, respectively, p & gt; 0.05) and the mean age of both sexes in each age group ( p & gt; 0.05). The D f , VAR, and D m of the inner ring, the D f of the outer ring, and the D f and VAR of the whole macula were significantly greater in men than women ( p & lt; 0.001, p & lt; 0.001, p & lt; 0.05, respectively). There was no significant change of τ n between males and females ( p & gt; 0.05). The D f , VAR, and D m of the whole macula, the inner and outer rings associated negatively with age ( p & lt; 0.001), whereas the τ n showed no significant association with age ( p & gt; 0.05). Comparison between age groups observed that D f started to decrease from G2 compared with G1 in the inner ring ( p & lt; 0.05) and D f , VAR, and D m all decreased from G3 compared with the younger groups in the whole macula, inner and outer rings ( p & lt; 0.05). Conclusion: In the healthy subjects, macular vascular geometric parameters obtained from fundus photography showed that D f , VAR, and D m are related to sex and age while τ n is not. The baseline values of the macular vascular geometry were also acquired for both sexes and all age groups.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2296-858X
DOI:
10.3389/fmed.2021.778346
Language:
Unknown
Publisher:
Frontiers Media SA
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2775999-4
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