Acceptability of OCT Angiography: A multicentre OCT Angiography NEtwork (OCTANE) study.

Abstract

Purpose : Spectral Domain OCT angiography (OCT-A) provides high resolution imaging of the chorio-retinal vasculature and may be used as a non-invasive alternative to diagnostic retinal dye angiography. The OCTANE study is first study to define feasibility of using OCT-A within a busy, real-world clinical setting. The purpose was to define acceptability of OCTA by patients and technicians in routine clinical practice.

Methods : Following ethical approval, patients attending for the care of a retinal condition at one of seven UK hospitals were randomly recruited. 284 patients underwent standardised imaging including OCT-A with Spectralis (Heidelberg Engineering, Germany). Patient and technician feedback was collected on a standardised questionnaire, designed for this study. Analysis was divided into “patient” and “technician” acceptability. 51 patients were excluded due to incomplete data, and a further 5 were excluded from the patient analysis due incomplete questionnaire. Thus 233 patients were included in the patient feasibility analysis and 238 in the technician feasibility analysis.

Results : The mean age of patients was 64.2 years (range 22 – 94 years) and 47.5% were female. 30% of patients had age-related macular degeneration, 20% had diabetic eye disease, 10% had retinal vein occlusion and 40% other retinal pathology (Fig. 1). Visual acuity across all eyes tested ranged from Snellen acuity of 6/3 to no perception of light. From the patient analysis (n=233), 85.8% of patients found OCT-A to be acceptable with 96.6% reporting that they would have the test again. 92.3% also agreed that the test was comfortable. Amongst the technician analysis (n=238), there were no reported problems in 79.8% of cases (Fig. 2). Common difficulties reported were due to poor patient fixation and long acquisition time. No adverse events were reported.

Conclusions : In diverse patient population Spectralis OCT-A was found to be well accepted by both patients and technicians in routine clinical practice at seven UK hospitals. OCT-A has potential to be a routine clinical test in retina practice.

This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.

 

Figure 1: Patient diagnosis

 

Figure 2. Patient and Technician feedback