Abstract
Purpose: :
To compare central macular thickness (CMT) and average optic nerve retinal nerve fiber (RNFL) thickness in patients with known history of optic neuritis and / or multiple sclerosis using five commercially available optical coherence tomography (OCT) instruments.
Methods: :
45 patients (90 eyes) with history of optic neuritis and / or multiple sclerosis were imaged on the same day with five commercially available OCT instruments which included Stratus OCT, Cirrus HD-OCT (Zeiss), RTVue-100 (Optovue), Spectralis (Heidelberg), and TopCon 3D OCT-1000 (Topcon Medical Systems). With each instrument, the CMT and RNFL thickness maps were obtained and analyzed.
Results: :
Among 45 patients imaged, 10 patients were excluded due to concurrent retinal disease or poor OCT image quality. Among 35 patients (70 eyes) included in our analysis, the mean +/- SD of the respective CMT and RNFL thickness were as follows for the five OCT instruments; Right Eye: Stratus (186 +/- 23, 93 +/- 13), Cirrus (257 +/- 23, 85 +/- 13), RTVue (247 +/- 23, 96 +/- 13), Spectralis (274 +/- 43, 89 +/- 16), Topcon (226 +/- 23, 102 +/- 12), and Left Eye: Stratus (187 +/- 21, 90 +/- 15), Cirrus (255 +/- 24, 84 +/- 13), RTVue (247 +/- 21, 94 +/- 15), Spectralis (268 +/- 25, 87 +/- 18), Topcon (226 +/- 23, 100 +/- 13). Randomized block analysis of variance revealed significant differences in CMT and RNFL thickness across instruments (p<0.001). Of the 89% female patient population, 86% were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, 71% with optic neuritis, and 57% with both.
Conclusions: :
This cross sectional comparative study illustrates that differences exist in CMT and RNFL thickness measurements by different commercially available OCTs in patients with optic neuritis and / or multiple sclerosis. These differences likely result from difference in data acquisition (time-domain versus fourier-domain) and software among the various instruments.
Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • neuro-ophthalmology: optic nerve