Adjusted color probability codes for peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in healthy Koreans

• Published in: BMC ophthalmology Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 38
• Main Authors: Hong, Samin, Kim, Sang-Myung, Park, Kyoungsoo, Lee, Jun Mo, Kim, Chan Yun, Seong, Gong Je
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 29.03.2014; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Codes; Color; Dietary fiber; Ethnicity; Female; Glaucoma; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Male; Medical equipment and supplies industry; Medical imaging; Medical test kit industry; Middle Aged; Nerve Fibers; Ophthalmology; Optic Disk - anatomy & histology; Optic nerve; Optics; Physiological aspects; Probability; Reference Values; Reproducibility of Results; Republic of Korea; Retinal Ganglion Cells - cytology; Software; Standard deviation; Studies; Tomography; Tomography, Optical Coherence - methods; Tomography, Optical Coherence - standards; University colleges; Young Adult; Republic of Korea; United States
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2415-14-38
• ISSN: 1471-2415

Though a newly developed spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) is at the center of interests for many ophthalmologic researchers and clinicians, its own characteristics are not fully evaluated yet. The main purpose of this study was to establish the adjusted color probability codes for peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in healthy Koreans and to compare them with original color codes provided by spectral domain OCT. Two hundred ninety-five healthy Korean eyes were enrolled and their peripapillary RNFL thickness was measured by Cirrus OCT. For each decade of age, the normal thickness reference was determined on the basis of z-scores and the adjusted color probability codes were established. Then the agreements between adjusted and original color codes were calculated using weighted Kappa (Kw) coefficient. On the basis of Kw coefficient, the overall agreement between the adjusted and original probability color codes was not excellent (Kw range of 0.500 to 0.806). If the adjusted probability codes were assumed as a standard of comparison, the original color codes showed the false-negative in 11% of eyes and the false-positive in 0.3% of eyes for average RNFL thickness. Adjusted color probability codes judged by the Korean normative data showed a discrepancy with original codes. It implies that normal reference and adjusted probability codes for each ethnicity might be needed to determine whether a certain RNFL thickness is within normal range or not.