Comparison of Peripapillary and Macular Optical Coherence Tomography Parameters Between Children and Young Adults

Purpose: To compare the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness, central subfield thickness (CSFT), and parafoveal and perifoveal thickness in children of different age groups with young adult controls by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included children aged 6-17 years and adult controls (18-22 years) - group 1: 6-9 years (57 eyes), group 2: 10-13 years (116 eyes), group 3: 14-17 years (66 eyes), and group 4 (controls): 18-22 years (61 eyes). A mixed-effects model was used to compare the OCT parameters among the groups, along with multivariable analysis.

Results: Analysis of 300 eyes of 152 patients was done. Group 2 (99.7 ± 1.1 μm, P = 0.03) and group 3 (100.4 ± 1.5 μm, P = 0.03) had thicker RNFL on average as compared to group 4 (95.6 ± 1.6 μm) on multivariable analysis. In pairwise comparison, group 2 (129.8 ± 2.5 μm, P = 0.02) and group 3 (132.6 ± 2.4 μm, P = 0.004) had thicker inferior RNFL compared to adult controls (122.4 ± 2.5 μm); superior RNFL was thicker in group 2 (129.6 ± 2.0 μm, P = 0.01) and group 3 (131.2 ± 2.6 μm, P = 0.008) compared to group 1 (120.9 ± 2.8 μm). On multivariable analysis, adult controls had thicker CSFT (236.5 ± 2.6 μm) than group 1 (222.7 ± 3.1 μm) and group 2 (229.6 ± 2.3 μm). Similarly, on pairwise comparison, adult controls had thicker parafoveal superior quadrants (320.5 ± 2.5 μm) and inferior quadrants (317.5 ± 2.3 μm) when compared with groups 1 and 2.

Conclusion: RNFL thickness seems to increase up to 17 years and then starts reducing, unlike CSFT, which increases with age from 6 to 22 years. A differential growth occurs in the different quadrants of RNFL and macula with age with some quadrants increasing in thickness as compared to the others.