Sherry Lauren M, Wang Jie Jin, Rochtchina Elena, Wong TienY, Klein Ronald, Hubbard LarryD, Mitchell Paul
Department of Ophthalmology, Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Hospital, and the Westmead Millennium and Save Sight Institutes, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2002 Jun;30(3):179-82. doi: 10.1046/j.1442-9071.2002.00520.x.
The purpose of the study was to assess the intergrader and intragrader reliability of computer-assisted retinal vessel dia-meter measurement in a defined, community-based population. Retinal photographs from participants in the Blue Mountains Eye Study were digitized using standard techniques. A grader identified all retinal vessels located 0.5-1.0 disc diameter from the optic disc margin,and a computer program measured the width of these vessels. Intergrader and intragrader reliability was assessed on a random sub-sample of 184 and 97 images, respectively, using quadratic weighted kappa(kappa) and correlation analysis (R2). Intergrader reliability was high for summary indices of retinal arteriolar (kappa = 0.85, R2 = 0.88)and venular (kappa = 0.90, R2 = 0.90)diameters, and their ratio, the arteriole-to-venule ratio (kappa = 0.75, R2 = 0.79).Intragrader reliability was also high, with kappa values ranging from 0.80 to 0.93 and from 0.80 to 0.92 for graders 1 and 2, respectively. It is concluded that the retinal vessel diameters could be reliably measured using computer-assisted software and may be used for population-based research.
