Accommodation-induced variations in retinal thickness measured by spectral domain optical coherence tomography

J Biomed Opt. 2014 Sep;19(9):96012. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.19.9.096012.

Abstract

To research retinal stretching or distortion with accommodation, accommodation-induced changes in retinal thickness (RT) in the macular area were investigated in a population of young adults (n = 23) by using a dual-channel spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) system manufactured in-house for this study. This dual-channel SD-OCT is capable of imaging the cornea and retina simultaneously with an imaging speed of 24 kHz A-line scan rate, which can provide the anatomical dimensions of the eye, including the RT and axial length. Thus, the modification of the RT with accommodation can be calculated. A significant decrease in the RT (13.50 ± 1.25 μm) was observed during maximum accommodation. In the 4 mm × 4 mm macular area centered at the fovea, we did not find a significant quadrant-dependent difference in retinal volume change, which indicates that neither retinal stretching nor distortion was quadrant-dependent during accommodation. We speculate that the changes in RT with maximum accommodation resulted from accommodation-induced ciliary muscle contractions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Male
  • Retina / anatomy & histology*
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods*
  • Young Adult