Repeatability and Reproducibility of Quantification of Superficial Peri-papillary Capillaries by four Different Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Devices

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 17866 - 7
• Main Authors: Lei, Jianqin, Pei, Cheng, Wen, Chan, Abdelfattah, Nizar Saleh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 14.12.2018; Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subjects: Adult; Angiography; Angiography - methods; Anthropometry - methods; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Capillaries; Capillaries - anatomy & histology; Capillaries - diagnostic imaging; Eye - anatomy & histology; Eye - diagnostic imaging; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Medical imaging; Middle Aged; Reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Tomography; Tomography, Optical Coherence - methods; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-36279-2

This study was performed to test the repeatability and reproducibility of measurements of peri-papillary capillaries from four optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) devices. 109 healthy eyes were imaged with four OCTA devices (Spectralis, Optovue, Triton and Cirrus). A 3 × 3 mm scan pattern centered on the disc was repeated twice by each device. En face images of superficial capillary plexus were screened and processed for calculation. Vessel length density (VLD) was calculated on four equally divided parts of a ring between two concentric circles manually centered on the disc. General linear model (GLM) was used to test the impact of device and location on VLD. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of VLD between repeated scans was calculated. Of 218 acquisitions, 36%, 92%, 76% and 88% were eligible for analysis from Spectralis, Optovue, Triton and Cirrus, respectively. ICC was 0.94, 0.90, 0.84 and 0.87 for the four devices. GLM showed measurements significantly varied among devices (P < 0.001) and locations (P < 0.001). Pairwise comparison showed Triton = Spectralis >Optovue >Cirrus, and temporal = nasal >superior = inferior in measuring capillary VLD. This study revealed the repeatability of measuring peri-papillary capillaries was high for all four devices, while the reproducibility among the machines was unfavorable.