Parapapillary diameter of retinal vessels. I. Estimating the size of the optic papilla (a papillometric study of over 264 normal eyes)

Abstract

The diameter of the temporal superior and inferior retinal artery and vein were measured at the optic disk border and 2 mm from the disk center in 264 nonselected normal eyes on the basis of photographs, with correction of magnification. Additionally, the individual ocular magnification factor was determined by Littmann's method. The mean caliber of the artery was 0.113 +/- 0.019 mm at the disk border and 0.118 +/- 0.023 2 mm from the disk center. The corresponding values for the vein were 0.149 +/- 0.026 mm and 0.159 +/- 0.026 mm. The correlations between vessel caliber and disk size were not significant, but the relationship between disk size and the quotient of vessel diameter divided by disk size was highly significant (p less than 0.0001). Vessel diameter can therefore be taken as an independent unit for determining optic disk size in relative and approximately also in absolute units. Thus, mean horizontal disk diameter (1.77 +/- 0.33 mm) corresponded to 16.3 +/- 3.5 artery and 12.3 +/- 2.6 vein diameters (measured at the optic disk border). The mean individual ocular magnification factor was 0.302 +/- 0.017, with a Gauss standard distribution. If the optical characteristics of a photographed eye are not known and the ocular magnification factor is assumed to be 0.302, then 68.3% of all eyes will be covered with an inaccuracy of 5.6% and 95.5% of all eyes with an inaccuracy of 11.2%.