Agreement between spectral-domain and time-domain OCT for measuring RNFL thickness.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To evaluate spectral-domain (SD) optical coherence tomography (OCT) reproducibility and assess the agreement between SD-OCT and Time-Domain (TD) OCT retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) measurements.

METHODS

Three Cirrus-SD-OCT scans and one Stratus-TD-OCT scan were obtained from Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study (DIGS) healthy participants and glaucoma patients on the same day. Repeatability was evaluated using Sw (within-subject standard deviation), CV (coefficient of variation) and ICC (intraclass correlation coefficient). Agreement was assessed using correlation and Bland-Altman plots.

RESULTS

16 healthy participants (32 eyes) and 39 patients (78 eyes) were included. SD-OCT reproducibility was excellent in both groups. The CV and ICC for Average RNFL thickness were 1.5% and 0.96, respectively, in healthy eyes and 1.6% and 0.98, respectively, in patient eyes. Correlations between RNFL parameters were strong, particularly for average RNFL thickness (R(2) = 0.92 in patient eyes). Bland-Altman plots showed good agreement between instruments, with better agreement for average RNFL thickness than for sectoral RNFL parameters (for example, at 90 microm average RNFL thickness, 95% limits of agreement were -13.1 to 0.9 for healthy eyes and -16.2 to -0.3 microm for patient eyes).

CONCLUSIONS

SD-OCT measurements were highly repeatable in healthy and patient eyes. Although the agreement between instruments was good, TD-OCT provided thicker RNFL measurements than SD-OCT. Measurements with these instruments should not be considered interchangeable.