Abstract

Dietary intake of carotenoids was estimated for five subjects by having them fill out a health habit and history questionnaire. In addition, reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography was used on four separate occasions to analyze serum levels of lutein and zeaxanthin (the two carotenoids comprising macular pigment) in the same subjects. On each of these four days, the optical density of macular pigment was also measured in these subjects. This was done psycho-physically by measuring foveal and parafoveal sensitivities to lights of 460 and 530 nm. The method of heterochromatic flicker photometry was used. Taking the difference between the log ratio of sensitivities to these lights at the two retinal loci yields a measure of the optical density of macular pigment. Both serum lutein and dietary lutein correlated highly with macular pigment density. Dietary lutein correlated with dietary beta-carotene, which also correlated with macular pigment density.

© 1992 Optical Society of America