Abstract
Purpose:
To validate the use of the Ocular Redness Index in the assessment of ocular injection in patients undergoing pterygium surgery.
Methods:
The Ocular Redness Index, an automated computer-assisted method that objectively quantifies ocular redness in digital images using a centesimal continuous scale, was used to score clinical photographs of 10 patients undergoing pterygium surgery. The scores obtained with the automated system were compared with those obtained by two cornea specialists who clinically evaluated the same set of images using the Validated Bulbar Redness scale, an photo-based comparative chart designed to minimize subjectivity in ocular redness assessment.
Results:
We analyzed a total of 28 corneal images from 10 patients before and after pterygium surgery. The correlation coefficient between the clinical and automated scores was R=0.76 (P<0.001) for observer 1 and R=0.79 (P<0.001) for observer 2. Importantly, the automated scores obtained by observers 1 and 2 were very similar (in a centesimal scale): 36.7 and 35.0 preoperatively, 52.7 and 52.8 at one week postoperatively, and at four weeks postoperatively 35.6 and 35.2.
Conclusions:
The automated Ocular Redness Index provides a reliable, continuous and objective score for evaluating ocular redness at different stages in patients undergoing pterygium surgery. This system may be used for assessing ocular redness in a variety of surgical and clinical conditions and in clinical trials.