Accuracy of retinal thickness measurements obtained with Cirrus optical coherence tomography

Abstract

Aim: To report the frequency and severity of retinal thickness measurement errors in a Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT) device, Cirrus OCT.

Methods: Data from 209 eyes undergoing Cirrus OCT imaging with the Macular Cube protocol were collected. For each eye, the position of the automated retinal boundary lines used by the Cirrus OCT software for thickness calculations was assessed using a 6-point categorical scale. The presence of errors was correlated with various parameters including: retinal morphological features and disease diagnosis.

Results: Errors of retinal boundary detection were observed in 57.5% of eyes but were severe in only 9.6% of eyes. The identification of subretinal fluid, subretinal tissue, pigment epithelium detachment or a diagnosis of choroidal neovascularisation was associated with more severe errors. Retinal cysts or a diagnosis of retinal vascular disease were less likely to be associated with significant error.

Conclusions: Retinal thickness measurement errors appear to occur less frequently with Fourier domain OCT (Cirrus OCT), but segmentation errors remain a concern, particularly in assessment of eyes with structurally complex retinal disease. With the recent release of multiple FDOCT systems, assessment of segmentation error may be an important factor in determining the relative merits of these systems.