AIM: To investigate peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness of healthy Chinese individuals from northwestern Shanghai using Cirrus HD-OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. Dublin, CA, USA).METHODS:The peripapillary RNFL thickness of 720 eyes from 360 healthy Chinese participants were measured using the Optic Disc Cube 200×200 protocol. Each eye was scanned 3 times. Global and each quadrant’s RNFL thickness around the optic nerve were compared between genders, and interocular differences were analyzed. The correlation between global RNFL thickness and age were also assessed in this study.RESULTS:The mean global, superior, nasal, inferior and temporal RNFL thickness of all the eyes were 96.04±7.40 μm, 118.36±13.52 μm, 67.63±8.60 μm, 125.17±13.48 μm, 72.49±10.70 μm, respectively. When analyzing between genders, the mean nasal RNFL thickness of male and female were 68.29±8.44 μm and 66.97±8.70 μm, with statistically significant difference (P=0.038), while the data of global, superior, inferior and temporal quadrant showed no significant difference (all P>0.05). When analyzing interocular differences, the mean RNFL thickness of all the right eyes and all the left eyes were 116.46±13.17 μm and 120.27±13.61 μm in superior quadrant (P<0.001); 68.74±8.80 μm and 66.52±8.25 μm in nasal quadrant (P<0.001); 73.16±10.95 and 71.83±10.41 in temporal quadrant (P<0.001), all having statistically significant differences. There were no statistically significant interocular differences of global and inferior RNFL thickness (both P>0.05). There was a significantly negative correlation (r=-0.618, P<0.001) between the mean global RNFL thickness and the age.CONCLUSION:In healthy Chinese from northwestern Shanghai, there were no significant differences detected interocular difference and between genders in the mean global RNFL thickness. Nevertheless, significant difference existed in the nasal quadrant between genders, and interocular differences existed in the superior, nasal and temporal quadrants. The RNFL thickness appeared to gradually decrease with age.