Age-related rarefaction in retinal vasculature is not linear

Che Azemin MZ 1 , Ab Hamid F 2 , Aminuddin A 3 , Wang JJ 4 , Kawasaki R 5 , Kumar DK 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Optometry and Visual Science, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia. Electronic address: zulfaezal@iium.edu.my
  • 2 Department of Optometry and Visual Science, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
  • 4 Centre for Eye Research Australia, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, University of Melbourne, Australia; Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
  • 5 Centre for Eye Research Australia, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, University of Melbourne, Australia
  • 6 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Exp Eye Res, 2013 Nov;116:355-358.
PMID: 24512773 DOI: 10.1016/j.exer.2013.10.010

Abstract

The fractal dimension is a global measure of complexity and is useful for quantifying anatomical structures, including the retinal vascular network. A previous study found a linear declining trend with aging on the retinal vascular fractal dimension (DF); however, it was limited to the older population (49 years and older). This study aimed to investigate the possible models of the fractal dimension changes from young to old subjects (10-73 years). A total of 215 right-eye retinal samples, including those of 119 (55%) women and 96 (45%) men, were selected. The retinal vessels were segmented using computer-assisted software, and non-vessel fragments were deleted. The fractal dimension was measured based on the log-log plot of the number of grids versus the size. The retinal vascular DF was analyzed to determine changes with increasing age. Finally, the data were fitted to three polynomial models. All three models are statistically significant (Linear: R2 = 0.1270, 213 d.f., p 

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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