Long-Term Reproducibility of OCT Angiography Parameters in Patients with High Myopia

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Retinal Vascular Diseases

Background:

• High myopia is associated with structural changes in the retina.
• Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a non-invasive imaging technique to visualize retinal vasculature.
• Evaluating the long-term reproducibility of OCTA parameters is crucial for clinical application in high myopia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the long-term reproducibility of OCT angiography parameters in patients with high myopia.
• To compare the reproducibility of foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, superficial vascular complex (SVD) vessel density (VD), deep vascular complex (DVD) VD, and choriocapillaris (CVD) VD.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study involving patients with high myopia and normal controls.
• OCT angiography was performed three times at 6-month intervals.
• Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and coefficient of variation (CV) were calculated to determine reproducibility.

Main Results:

• Reproducibility varied by parameter and group: FAZ area showed good reproducibility (ICC/CV: 0.783/20.8% in high myopia, 0.931/9.5% in controls).
• SVD (ICC/CV: 0.636/15.9%), DVD (ICC/CV: 0.590/15.7%), and CVD (ICC/CV: 0.672/9.8%) showed moderate to poor reproducibility in high myopia compared to controls.
• Image quality was significantly associated with the CV of SVD, DVD, and CVD, while axial length also impacted CVD reproducibility.

Conclusions:

• OCT angiography demonstrates relatively good reproducibility for FAZ area, moderate for SVD and CVD, and the poorest for DVD in high myopia.
• OCT angiography image quality is a critical factor influencing the long-term reproducibility of vessel density measurements in all retinal layers.