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Updated: Aug 6, 2025
Longitudinal In Vivo Imaging of the Cerebrovasculature: Relevance to CNS Diseases
Published on: December 6, 2016
Intrasession Repeatability of OCT Angiography Parameters in Neurodegenerative Disease
Dennis Y Akrobetu1,2, Cason B Robbins1,2, Justin P Ma1,2
1iMIND Research Group, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina.
Purpose:
To assess the intrasession repeatability of macular OCT angiography (OCTA) parameters in Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Parkinson's disease (PD), and normal cognition (NC).
Design:
Cross sectional study.
Subjects:
Patients with a clinical diagnosis of AD, PD, MCI, or NC were imaged. Images with poor quality and of those with diabetes mellitus, glaucoma, or vitreoretinal disease were excluded from analysis.
Methods Intervention Or Testing:
All participants were imaged using the Zeiss Cirrus HD-5000 with AngioPlex (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Software Version 11.0.0.29946) and repeat OCTA images were obtained for both eyes. Perfusion density (PFD), vessel density (VD), and Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area were measured from 3 × 3 mm and 6 × 6 mm OCTA images centered on the fovea using an ETDRS grid overlay.
Main Outcome Measures:
Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to quantify repeatability of PFD, VD, and FAZ area measurements obtained from imaging.
Results:
3 × 3 mm scans of 22 AD, 40 MCI, 21 PD, and 26 NC participants and 6 × 6 mm scans of 29 AD, 44 MCI, 29 PD, and 30 NC participants were analyzed. Repeatability values ranged from 0.64 (0.49-0.82) for 6 × 6 mm PFD in AD participants to 0.87 (0.67-0.92) for 3 × 3 mm PFD in AD participants. No significant differences were observed in repeatability between NC participants and those with neurodegenerative disease.
Conclusions:
Overall, similar OCTA repeatability was observed between NC participants and those with neurodegeneration. Regardless of diagnostic group, macular OCTA metrics demonstrated moderate to good repeatability.
Financial Disclosures:
The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
