Macular pigment and ocular biometry

Abstract

This study is designed to investigate the relationship between macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and ocular biometric parameters. The following details were recorded for 180 healthy subjects: demographic profile; best-corrected visual acuity; refractive status; ocular biometric parameters [axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT) and vitreous chamber depth (VCD)]; ocular dominance; MPOD; serum lutein (L) and zeaxanthin (Z). The mean MPOD (± SD) was 0.307 (0.155) and 0.305 (0.149) in the right and left eyes, respectively. No demonstrable relationship was observed between MPOD and AL, ACD or VCD [AL: r = 0.091, p = 0.225; ACD: r = 0.091, p = 0.227; VCD: r = 0.146, p = 0.051]. There was a significant and inverse relationship between LT and MPOD ( r = −0.204; p = 0.008), which was attenuated to non-significance after correction for age and height ( r = −0.058; p = 0.466). This study fails to identify an association between MPOD and ocular biometric parameters. This is an important negative finding, which allows investigators to study MP, and its relationship with potentially important variables, without the need to correct for ocular biometric parameters.