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Updated: Jul 5, 2026
Application of Optical Coherence Tomography to a Mouse Model of Retinopathy
Published on: January 12, 2022
Comparison of macular thickness measurements between time domain and spectral domain optical coherence tomography
Christopher Kai-shun Leung1, Carol Yim-lui Cheung, Robert N Weinreb
1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Peoples Republic of China. tlims00@hotmail.com
Purpose:
To compare macular thickness measurements obtained from time domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) and spectral domain OCT and to evaluate their repeatability and agreement.
Methods:
Thirty-five healthy normal subjects were included. In one randomly selected eye in each subject, three serial macular measurements were obtained from a time domain OCT (Stratus OCT, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA) and a spectral domain OCT (3D OCT; Topcon, Tokyo, Japan) by an experienced technician in random order. Total and regional macular thicknesses obtained by the two OCTs were compared. Their agreement was examined with Bland-Altman plots. Repeatability (2.77 x within subject SD [Sw]), coefficient of variation (CVw; Sw/overall mean), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated to evaluate repeatability.
Results:
Low variability for macular thickness measurements was found in both time domain and spectral domain OCTs. The range of the respective CVw and ICC values were 1.6% to 3.2% and 0.85 to 0.91 for Stratus OCT and 0.6% to 2.4% and 0.92 to 0.99 for 3D OCT. 3D OCT demonstrated better repeatability for total and regional macular thicknesses (all with P
Conclusions:
Although both time domain and spectral domain OCTs are reliable for macular thickness measurements, spectral domain OCT has better measurement repeatability compared with time domain OCT. Macular measurements obtained from the two OCT systems may not be used interchangeably.
