Purpose:
To evaluate the repeatability and agreement of the optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT) measurements as made with automatic, operator-adjusted, and manual defined disc-definition functions of the RTVue-100 Fourier-domain optical coherence tomograph (RTVue OCT), and to asses the between-methods differences.
Methods:
One eye of 126 persons (72 glaucomatous, 10 ocular hypertensive (OHT), 44 healthy eyes) was analyzed with all three disc-definition functions of the RTVue OCT. Thirty-three eyes were imaged 5 times for determination of measurement repeatability.
Results:
Repeatability with automatic disc-definition was significantly poorer than the other options, but did not differ between the manual and operator-adjusted methods. Refractive error, disease category (glaucoma, OHT or normal) or peripapillary atrophy had no influence on repeatability. Similar between-method differences were seen for eyes irrespective of glaucoma, refractive error, or parapapillary atrophy. High intraclass correlation (93.5% to 99.9%) was seen for all parameters measured with manual and operator-adjusted methods. Agreement of classifications (normal, borderline, outside normal limits) was better for RNFLT parameters than disc parameters, and the kappa-values were highest (0.881 to 0.968) in comparing the manual and operator-adjusted methods.
Conclusions:
Measurement repeatability, measured parameter values and classification with manual and operator-adjusted disc-definition functions of the RTVue OCT are similar and are not influenced by refractive error, glaucoma, or parapapillary atrophy. Operator-adjusted disc-definition, which is faster than the conventional manual disc definition, can be useful for glaucoma detection with the RTVue OCT.
Keywords: nerve fiber layer • imaging/image analysis: clinical • optic disc