A prospective, comparative, observational study on optical coherence tomography of the anterior eye segment

We compared two commercially available spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices according to their capacity of imaging the anterior segment of the eye with the same detail and quality.

A prospective, observational, single-visit study with individuals aged 18 years and older was conducted on two different OCT devices: the Spectralis™ OCT and the RTVue™ OCT. The resulting OCT images of both study devices of each study subject were compared and qualified by a single investigator according to the identification of corresponding structures and pathologies (primary endpoint) and the comparability of the clinical information given (secondary endpoint).

We included 28 eyes (28 patients) in our study, e.g. 8 normal eyes, 7 of subjects with corneal disease, 8 eyes with chamber angle pathology and 5 cases with pathology of the sclera. Of all anterior segment structures analyzed, 93.9% were identified by Spectralis™ OCT and 91.2% were detected by RTVue® OCT with a high positive correlation (r = 0.996; p < 0.0001) between the two devices.

The majority of clinically relevant structures could be identified with both devices in all subjects. The Spectralis OCT tended to perform better in the illustration of deep anterior segment structures like the ciliary body and sclera.