Interocular agreement in melanin and macular pigment optical density.

Abstract

Macular pigment (MP) and melanin possibly protect the macular area by absorbing blue light and acting as antioxidants. Because little is known about the interocular correlation of melanin, we determined its optical density (MOD) in both eyes of healthy subjects using fundus reflectometry. The measuring method also provided optical densities of MP (MPOD). In addition to evaluating its interocular correspondence we checked its dependency on central retinal thickness as measured with optical coherence tomography (OCT). Spectral fundus reflectance was measured in 69 eyes of 37 healthy participants. Both eyes of 32 subjects (15 males and 17 females, aged 57.9+/-14.6 years) were used to evaluate interocular correspondences. MPOD data from 35 right eyes of 18 males and 17 females, aged 55.7+/-15.7 years, was used to evaluate the relation between central retinal thickness and MPOD. MOD was 0.99+/-0.30 (range: 0.57-2.07) for the left eyes and 1.02+/-0.28 (range: 0.62-2.07) for the right eyes. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.89 (P