The Relationship Between Retinal Vessel Diameter with Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer Thickness and Optic Nerve Head Parameters: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort Eye Study

Retinal vessels are the only blood vessels in the human body that can be examined using non-invasive techniques. High-resolution images of retinal vessels and the optic nerve can be obtained, even without dilating the pupil. Retinal vessel diameters can be analyzed using high-resolution images by computer software. Many diseases (such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, and eye diseases like glaucoma) have been found to have associations with retinal vessel diameters. This study evaluates the association between retinal vessel diameters with retinal nerve fibre layer and optic nerve head parameters in middle-aged Caucasians using three different imaging devices.
Participants were 3070 subjects of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort, who attended the eye examination. Significant relationships were detected between retinal nerve fibre layer, optic nerve head parameters, and retinal vessel diameters. There was a discrepancy in the retinal nerve fibre layer thickness measured with different devices since these three imaging devices evaluate different entities and use various techniques to measure the retinal nerve fibre layer thicknesses.
Our study showed associations between retinal nerve fibre layer and retinal vessel diameters, setting the normal values of those measures in middle-aged Caucasians. This finding may help in early detection of eye or systemic diseases with vascular or neuronal effects.