Inter-device agreement of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness measurements using spectral domain cirrus HD OCT

Korean J Ophthalmol. 2011 Apr;25(2):105-9. doi: 10.3341/kjo.2011.25.2.105. Epub 2011 Mar 11.

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the inter-device agreement of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness measurements by 2 spectral domain Cirrus HD optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices in healthy Korean subjects.

Methods: Eleven eyes of 11 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the present study. Each eye was scanned with the Optic Disc Cube 200 × 200 scan of 2 Cirrus HD OCT devices for peripapillary RNFL thickness calculation. The inter-device agreements of the 2 Cirrus HD OCTs for average, quadrant, and clock-hour RNFL thickness values were determined with Wilcoxon signed rank test, Friedman test, Cronbach's alpha (α), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation (COV), and Bland-Altman plot.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 25.82 ± 3.28 years and all had a 0.00 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution of best-corrected visual acuity. The signal strengths of scans from the 2 Cirrus HD OCT were not significantly different (p = 0.317). The inter-device agreement of average RNFL thickness was excellent (α, 0.940; ICC, 0.945; COV, 2.45 ± 1.52%). However, the agreement of nasal quadrant RNFL thickness was not very good (α, 0.715; ICC, 0.716; COV, 5.72 ± 4.64%). Additionally, on the Bland-Atman plot, the extent of agreement of the 2 Cirrus HD OCTs for RNFL thickness was variable according to scanned sectors.

Conclusions: The inter-device agreement of 2 spectral domain Cirrus HD OCT devices for peripapillary RNFL thickness measurements was generally excellent but variable according to the scanned area. Thus, physicians should consider this fact before judging a change of RNFL thicknesses if they were measured by different OCT devices.

Keywords: Inter-device agreement; Optical coherence tomography; Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Algorithms*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Observer Variation
  • Optic Nerve Diseases / diagnosis*
  • Retinal Ganglion Cells / pathology*
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / statistics & numerical data*
  • Young Adult