Posterior Eye Shape Measurement With Retinal OCT Compared to MRI

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics

Background:

• Posterior eye shape is crucial for understanding myopia.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a current standard for its assessment.
• Exploring alternative, noninvasive imaging methods is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate optical coherence tomography (OCT) as an alternative to MRI for posterior eye shape measurement.
• To test if OCT can provide similar measurements of posterior eye shape parameters as MRI.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed macular spectral-domain OCT and brain MRI images from the Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases study.
• Segmented ocular images and corrected OCT data for optical distortions.
• Fitted segmentations to spheres/ellipsoids to derive radius of curvature (Rc) and asphericity (Qxz).
• Compared MRI and OCT measurements using paired t-tests and categorical agreement analysis.

Main Results:

• Distortion correction significantly reduced the difference in posterior eye radius of curvature (Rc) between OCT and MRI (P = 0.51).
• Differences in asphericity (Qxz) between MRI and corrected OCT were not statistically significant (P = 0.28).
• Categorical agreement for prolateness/oblateness based on Qxz was moderate (κ = 0.50).

Conclusions:

• Distortion-corrected OCT measurements of posterior eye shape (Rc and Qxz) are comparable to MRI.
• Noninvasive, office-based OCT shows potential as a substitute for MRI in posterior eye shape studies.
• Further validation is needed due to moderate categorical agreement in shape classification.