Vascular Perfusion Variability in Diabetic Retinopathy: A Sequential Interscan Optical Coherence Tomography...

Background/Objectives: The aim of this study was to quantify the interscan variability of vascular perfusion in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) using sequential optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) scans. Methods: Patients with low-grade DR (DRSS score 20) underwent five sequential OCT-A imaging sessions. Vessel perfusion density (VPD) values of the superficial capillary plexus (SCP), intermediate capillary plexus (ICP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and choriocapillaris (CC) were computed using ImageJ Version 1.54 software via a binarization process. The binarized images were analyzed to compute VPD using vessel density plugins. Inter-session variability was assessed using the coefficient of variation (CV) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The results were compared with an age-matched group of healthy controls. Results: A total of 16 eyes from 16 patients with DR (6 females, 37.5%) and 16 eyes from healthy controls (6 females, 37.5%) were included. Mean VPD values for SCP, ICP, DCP, and CC in patients with DR were 23.64, 13.64, 15.31, and 36.57, respectively. Corresponding values for the healthy subjects were 37.65, 23.32, 22.05, and 49.00, respectively. No significant differences were found in VPD across consecutive scanning sessions (p > 0.05) in either group. However, significant differences in VPD were observed between patients who were healthy and patients with diabetes. Conclusions: Sequential OCT-A imaging demonstrated no significant inter-session variability in both healthy subjects and subjects with diabetes. The Spectralis OCT-A system showed high reliability for imaging both healthy and diseased conditions.