"iDoctor – Medical Blog"

Purpose: To report the reproducibility of macular pigment optical density (MPOD) values assessed with heterochromatic flicker photometry (HFP) in healthy individuals.Methods: Twenty-four volunteers from our department underwent MPOD testing of both eyes by flicker photometry on three separate occasions. To test reproducibility of MPOD, the coefficient of variance was calculated separately for right and left eyes. In addition, we investigated MPOD averages of right and left eyes and interocular correlations (Pearson’s r) at every visit.Results: The mean MPODs at the first visit were 0.61 ± 0.24 and 0.72 ± 0.27 in right and left eyes, respectively. Mean values of 0.58 ± 0.29 and 0.60 ± 0.21 (second visit) and 0.62 ± 0.27 and 0.63 ± 0.24 (third visit) were assessed for right and left eyes, respectively. Differences of the mean values between eyes were not significant. Correlations were weak at visits one and two (r = 0.49, p < 0.014 and r = 0.43, p < 0.038, respectively) and moderate at visit three (r = 0.58, p < 0.003). The coefficients of variance were 36.1% and 23% for right and left eyes, respectively.Conclusion: Our mean MPODs are higher and the interocular correlations weaker compared to the literature. The coefficient of variance in both eyes is high and does not imply good reproducibility of obtained MPOD values.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 3:18 am and is filed under Health news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.