Macular thickness and parity

Abstract

The eye is one of the organs of the body that is affected by the physiological changes of pregnancy. Macular thickness varies with age and gender. Changes in macular thickness with increasing parity have been proposed by some researchers. This study sought to determine the effect of repeated pregnancies on macular thickness in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria and to
correlate macular thickness values based on parity. It was a cross-sectional descriptive study on healthy Nigerian adult female eyes in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria. A total of 77 consenting female adult Nigerians with normal eyes were recruited and examined using Carl Zeiss Stratus Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) machine Model 3000 software version 4.0. Data was
analyzed using the independent sample t-test, one- way ANOVA and Sheffe post- hoc. Pearson method was used for correlation analysis. Mean age of subjects was 32.2 ± 8.2 years. Mean Total Macular Thickness (MTMT) was found to be 234.84 ± 15.70μm. MTMT was also found to be 283.84 ± 16.12μm, 283.85 ± 16.37μm and 283.64 ± 17.59μm in Hausa (n = 106), Igbo (n = 03) and Yoruba
(n = 20) women respectively with no statistical significant difference between the three major tribes in Nigeria. Mean Central Foveal Thickness (MCFT) was 173.18 ± 18.46μm. The central fovea showed a statistically significant difference in the mean values for the nulliparaous, primiparous and multiparous groups 176.39 ± 16.07µm, 181.88 ± 24.14µm and 169.58 ± 18.0 µm respectively (P =
0.000). Macular thickness has been shown to have a relationship with parity. Oestrogen has been proposed to play a role in this relationship. It is important to consider parity in the interpretation of macular thickness in parous females.