Purpose: To determine a reference database of the thickness and intraocular thickness asymmetry of total retina, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell layer (GCL), and inner plexiform layer (IPL) in healthy Thai subjects measured by the Spectralis spectral-domain optical coherence tomography Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited the healthy subjects age ≥18 years, having spherical refraction within ±6 diopters and cylindrical refraction ±3 diopters, from a hospital’s personnel and the people accompanying patients visiting the ophthalmology department. If the eligibility criteria were met for both eyes, only 1 eye of each subject was randomly selected for an analysis. Macular images were obtained using posterior pole thickness scan protocol over a 24x24 degree area at the center of the fovea. The automated retinal thickness segmentation values of total retina and three inner retinal layers were calculated for the mean and the mean intraocular thickness difference between superior and inferior retinal hemispheres. The influence of age, gender, and axial length on thickness and thickness asymmetry of individualized retinal layer were evaluated. Results: Two hundred and fifty-two subjects were included in study with a mean (SD) age of 46.7 (15.8) years and 120 (47.6%) were males. According to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study map, the inner ring area was the thickest location of the total retina (range; 326.0 to 341.5 µm), ganglion cell layer (range; 47.7 to 52.7 µm), and inner plexiform layer (range; 39.9 to 42.1 µm); whereas the thickest location of RNFL was at the outer ring area (range; 18.8 to 47.5 µm). For posterior pole intraocular thickness asymmetry, the greatest mean ± SD difference was observed for total retina (9.0 ± 2.2 µm), followed by RNFL (9.9 ± 3.2 µm), and GCL (2.7 ± 0.6 µm) and the lowest mean difference was noted for IPL (2.4 ± 0.5 µm). The thickness and thickness asymmetry of each retinal layer were variably influenced by age, gender, and axial length; however, these factors had a minimal influence on the thickness asymmetry maps of GCL and RNFL. Conclusion: The reference database of the macular thickness and thickness asymmetry from this study would be beneficial in determining physiologic variations of the OCT parameters in the healthy Thai population.

The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel