Purpose: To measure retinal nerve fiber layer(RNFL) thickness in normal Chinese people for the use of early diagnosis in glaucomatous patients.
Methods: Optical Coherence Tomography(OCT) was used in 111 eyes of 77 Subjects to create cylindrical cross sections of the RNFL around the optic nerve head with scan diameter of 3.46 mm. The differences in RNFL thickness were analyzed with age, sex, either eye.
Results: We found a decrease in RNFL thickness with aging especially in the superior quadrant(P < 0.05), but there weren't significant difference between right and left eyes, neither the sex(P > 0.05). The Mean RNFL thickness of different ages(mean +/- s) was as following: the superior quadrant 128.00 +/- 10.31-149.00 +/- 13.17, the inferior quadrant 132.95 +/- 9.54-142.33 +/- 10.60, the overall mean RNFL thickness 109.00 +/- 4.72-114.28 +/- 7.98 microns.
Conclusion: The preliminary study showed that neither sex nor either eye were associated with significant differences in RNFL thickness. It is necessary to define the normative value by age group on a larger scale.