Prevalences of segmentation errors and motion artifacts in OCT-angiography differ among retinal diseases

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
• Medical Imaging Technology

Background:

• Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) is a key imaging modality for retinal diseases.
• Assessing image quality, including segmentation accuracy and motion artifacts, is vital for reliable OCT-A analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the prevalence of segmentation errors and motion artifacts in OCT-A across various retinal diseases.
• To compare image quality metrics between healthy controls and patients with chorioretinal pathologies.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of OCT-A images from 57 healthy controls and 149 patients with retinal diseases.
• Utilized a 3x3 mm central OCT-A with active eye-tracking.
• Assessed motion artifacts using the OCT-A motion artifact score (MAS) and segmentation accuracy using a novel segmentation accuracy score (SAS).

Main Results:

• Patients with retinal pathologies exhibited significantly higher motion artifact scores (MAS) compared to healthy controls.
• Accurate segmentation (SAS I) was achieved in all healthy subjects, whereas 63.8% of patients showed segmentation errors (SAS IIA/IIB).
• Neovascular AMD (nAMD) showed the highest percentage of inaccurate segmentation (90.1%); the inner plexiform layer was most affected.

Conclusions:

• Motion artifacts and segmentation errors are common in OCT-A, particularly in diseased retinas.
• Thorough qualitative review of OCT-A images is essential before quantitative or qualitative analysis.
• Current OCT-A technology requires careful consideration of image quality in pathological conditions.