Repeatability and reproducibility of eight macular intra-retinal layer thicknesses determined by an automated...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Accurate measurement of intra-retinal layer thickness is crucial for diagnosing and monitoring various retinal diseases.
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a key imaging modality for in vivo retinal layer assessment.
• Automated algorithms offer potential for objective and efficient retinal layer segmentation and thickness quantification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the repeatability, reproducibility, and agreement of intra-retinal layer thickness measurements.
• To assess an automated algorithm's performance across two different OCT instruments: ultra-high resolution OCT (UHR-OCT) and RTVue100 OCT.
• To determine the reliability of automated thickness profiling for eight distinct intra-retinal layers.

Main Methods:

• Twenty healthy subjects underwent macular imaging using UHR-OCT and RTVue100 OCT.
• An automated algorithm segmented the retina into eight layers and quantified their thicknesses.
• Intra-observer and inter-observer reliability were assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and coefficients of repeatability and reproducibility (CORs).

Main Results:

• ICCs for intra-observer repeatability and inter-observer reproducibility exceeded 0.945 for most intra-retinal layers and total retina.
• Coefficients of repeatability and reproducibility (CORs) were below 6.73% for all layers.
• Agreement between UHR-OCT and RTVue OCT thickness profiles was high (ICC > 0.80), except for photoreceptor inner and outer segments.

Conclusions:

• Automated thickness measurements of intra-retinal layers are reliable and reproducible with both UHR-OCT and RTVue100 instruments.
• The developed algorithm demonstrates robust performance for quantitative retinal layer analysis.
• Findings support the clinical utility of automated OCT-based retinal layer thickness assessment.