Ethnic Variations in Retinal Thickness of Pakistani Population

Abstract

Objective: This study was aimed to generate the normative database for RNFL thickness in a multiethnic population of Pakistan so that this data can be used as a baseline for the better diagnosis and evaluation of diseases in the clinical set ups.
Methods: It was a cross sectional study. The study was conducted in an ophthalmology OPD, Karachi, Pakistan for the duration of 9 months. Total 300 healthy eye were included in the study. They were grouped according to their native languages: Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi and Pashto. Data was entered on SPSS version 20. The retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was measured and differences in these multiethnic groups were analyzed by using ANOVA. Subjects with raised intraocular pressure (> 21mmHg), retinopathy, history of intraocular surgery, chronic smoking and high refractive errors were excluded from the study. We took P-value <0.05 as significant.
Results: There was a significant difference noted among different ethnic groups (p<0.001). Total mean retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was found to be 99.02 ± 9.09 ìm in our population. It was measured thickest in the Baloch group (124.00 ± 2.83 ìm) and thinnest in the Urdu-speaking group (98.27 ± 8.79 m). The thickness of each quadrant in all the groups followed the ISNT rule (inferior >superior > nasal > temporal).
Conclusions: Mean RNFL observed in our studies was different in each ethnic group with the thickest being found in the Baloch, followed by Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and Urdu speaking group. Future prospect of making this study multi-centric could help the researchers create a robust data pool; the reference values used during OCT in the country can be changed accordingly, aiding early detection of retinal pathologies.