Individual variations in human cone photoreceptor packing density: variations with re

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Individual variations in human cone photoreceptor packing density: variations with refractive error. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008 Jun 14; Authors: Chui TY, Song H, Burns SA PURPOSE. To measure the variation in human cone photoreceptor packing density across the retina both within an individual and between individuals with different refractive errors. METHODS. A high resolution adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope was used to image the cones of eleven human eyes. Five emmetropes and six myopes were tested (+0.50D to -7.50D). For each subject we obtained four approximately 10 degree by 1.5 degree strips of cone images. Each strip started at the fovea, and proceeded towards the periphery along the four primary meridians. The position of each cone within the sampling windows was digitized manually by the investigator. From these cone counts, the density of cones was calculated for a set of fixed distances from the fovea for locations throughout the image. RESULTS. Cone photoreceptor packing density decreased from 27,712 cells/mm2 to 7,070 cells/mm2 from the retinal eccentricity of 0.30mm to 3.40mm along the superior meridian in five emmetropic eyes. Cone photoreceptor packing density in cells/mm2 was significantly lower in myopic eyes than in emmetropic eyes. At a given location, there was considerable individual variation in cone photoreceptor packing density, although more than 20% of the variance could be accounted for by differences in axial length. CONCLUSIONS. Our results provide a baseline analysis of individual difference in cone photoreceptor packing density in healthy human eyes. As predicted by retinal stretching models, cone photoreceptor packing density is lower in highly myopic eyes than in emmetropic eyes. PMID: 18552378 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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