Fig. 3

Retinal layer thicknesses changes with age and eccentricity in the dorso-ventral and naso-temporal planes. a cSLO fundus image showing planes along which retinal layer thickness were measured. The temporal plane is shown in more detail with the corresponding SD-OCT image showing positions where measurements were made. b and c Spider graphs showing the mean (+/− SD) total retina (TR), inner retina (IR), Receptor+ (REC+) and outer nuclear layer (ONL) thicknesses in the ventro-dorsal (b) and naso-temporal (c) axes at 4, 6, 12, 26 and 52 weeks of age. Note that at each age the total retina (TR – shown in black in the figures) thins with distance from the optic rim. This is mostly accounted for by thinning of the inner retina (IR, red). The outer retina (REC+ and ONL) shows little change with distance from the optic rim (also see Fig. 4). The dorsal retina is thicker than the ventral retina at all ages and the nasal retina slightly thicker than the temporal retina at early ages (4 and 6 weeks of age). A linear mixed effects model was calculated to analyze layer thickness changes with increasing distance from the optic rim. Correlation of layer thickness with distance from optic rim and significance values are shown in Additional file 1 - Tables S4A and 4B, respectively. Additional file 1 - Tables S3A and S3B show raw values and percentage changes with eccentricity, respectively. d-e Representative SD-OCT high resolution cross-section images of the retina at 12 weeks of age of the dorsal (d oriented vertically) and nasal (e oriented horizontally) quadrants centered at 1, 3 and 6 mm from the edge of the optic rim. The adjacent bars show the measurement of the different retinal layers. Note the progressive thinning of the TR and IR from 1 to 6 mm from the optic rim while the REC+ and ONL thicknesses show little change