A Comparison between Scheimpflug imaging and optical coherence tomography in measuring corneal thickness

To assess the repeatability and reproducibility of 3 rotating Scheimpflug cameras, the Pentacam (Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany), Sirius (Costruzione Strumenti Oftalmici, Florence, Italy), and Galilei (Ziemer, Biel, Switzerland), and 1 Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) system, the RTvue-100 OCT (Optovue Inc., Fremont, CA), in measuring corneal thickness.

Evaluation of diagnostic test.

Sixty-six right eyes of 66 healthy volunteers, whose mean age ± standard deviation (SD) was 35.39±10.06 years (range, 18-55 years).

Corneal thickness measurements obtained by each system included central corneal thickness (CCT), thinnest corneal thickness (TCT), and midperipheral corneal thickness (MPCT), measured at superior, inferior, nasal, and temporal locations at a distance of 1 and 2.5 mm from the corneal apex. In the first session, 3 consecutive measurements were performed by the same operator to assess intraobserver repeatability and by a second operator to assess interobserver reproducibility. Measurements were repeated in the second session scheduled 1 day to 1 week later. The mean values obtained in the 2 sessions by the first operator were used to investigate the intersession reproducibility.

Intraobserver repeatability and interobserver and intersession repeatability of corneal thickness measurements, as calculated by means of within-subject SD, test-retest repeatability, coefficient of variation (COV), and intraclass correlation coefficients.

The precision of CCT, TCT, CT2 mm (midperipheral corneal thickness [MPCT] with a distance of 1 mm from the corneal apex), and CT5 mm (midperipheral corneal thickness [MPCT] with a distance of 2.5 mm from the corneal apex) measurements was high with all 4 systems. The COV was ≤1.16%, 0.94%, and 1.10% for repeatability, interobserver reproducibility, and intersession reproducibility, respectively. The 4 devices offered better interobserver reproducibility than intersession reproducibility for all measurements. The CTsuperior-5 mm (midperipheral corneal thickness [MPCT], measured at superior locations with a distance of 2.5 mm from the corneal apex) measurements showed the poorest repeatability and reproducibility. The Galilei revealed the best precision of CCT, TCT, and CT2 mm measurements.

Both Scheimpflug imaging and FD-OCT offer highly repeatable and reproducible measurements of CCT and MPCT. The precision was lower in the midperipheral superior quadrant.

The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.