Comparison of Optical Coherence Tomography Measurement Reproducibility between Children and Adults

To compare the reproducibility of SD-OCT (spectral-domain optical coherence tomography) measurements of RNFL (retinal nerve fiber layer) and macular thickness between children and adults.

Seventy-one eyes of 71 children and 71 eyes of 71 adults were prospectively enrolled. RNFL and macular thicknesses were measured by one operator, with a brief rest between measurements. The two measurements were obtained using the eye tracking and retest function of Spectralis SD-OCT. Reproducibility was evaluated with reference to COVs (coefficients of variation) and ICCs (intraclass correlation coefficients). The ICC values of the RNFL and macular thicknesses were compared, respectively between the two groups, by Fisher's z-test.

The RNFL and macular thicknesses did not differ between the two groups. The COVs of the RNFL measurements ranged from 0.945 to 4.531% in the children group and from 0.496 to 1.391% in the adults group. In most of the RNFL sectors, the ICCs of the children group (range: 0.731-0.987) were significantly lower than those of the adults group (range: 0.986-0.993). The COVs of the macular measurements ranged from 0.496 to 1.157% in the children group and from 0.275 to 0.656% in the adults group. The ICCs (range: 0.860-0.974) in the children group, significantly lower than for the adults (range: 0.989-0.995), in all of the macular sectors.

The reproducibility of SD-OCT RNFL and macular measurements for children was excellent, albeit statistically lower than that for adults.