AUTHOR=Feng Ziqing , Wang Gengyuan , Xia Honghui , Li Meng , Liang Guoxia , Dong Tingting , Xiao Peng , Yuan Jin 

TITLE=Macular Vascular Geometry Changes With Sex and Age in Healthy Subjects: A Fundus Photography Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.778346

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.778346

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Purpose:</bold> To characterize the sex- and age-related alterations of the macular vascular geometry in a population of healthy eyes using fundus photography.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> 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<sub>f</sub>), vessel area rate (VAR), average vessel diameter (D<sub>m</sub>), and vessel tortuosity (τ<sub>n</sub>) were acquired and compared between sex and age groups.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> There was no significant difference between the mean age of male and female subjects (32.706 ± 10.372 and 33.494 ± 10.620, respectively, <italic>p</italic> &gt; 0.05) and the mean age of both sexes in each age group (<italic>p</italic> &gt; 0.05). The D<sub>f</sub>, VAR, and D<sub>m</sub> of the inner ring, the D<sub>f</sub> of the outer ring, and the D<sub>f</sub> and VAR of the whole macula were significantly greater in men than women (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05, respectively). There was no significant change of τ<sub>n</sub> between males and females (<italic>p</italic> &gt; 0.05). The D<sub>f</sub>, VAR, and D<sub>m</sub> of the whole macula, the inner and outer rings associated negatively with age (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), whereas the τ<sub>n</sub> showed no significant association with age (<italic>p</italic> &gt; 0.05). Comparison between age groups observed that D<sub>f</sub> started to decrease from G2 compared with G1 in the inner ring (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) and D<sub>f</sub>, VAR, and D<sub>m</sub> all decreased from G3 compared with the younger groups in the whole macula, inner and outer rings (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05).</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> In the healthy subjects, macular vascular geometric parameters obtained from fundus photography showed that D<sub>f</sub>, VAR, and D<sub>m</sub> are related to sex and age while τ<sub>n</sub> is not. The baseline values of the macular vascular geometry were also acquired for both sexes and all age groups.</p>