title: Assessment of artifacts and reproducibility across spectral- and time-domain optical coherence tomography devices.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report the frequency of optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan artifacts and to compare macular thickness measurements, interscan reproducibility, and interdevice agreeability across 3 spectral-domain (SD) OCT (also known as Fourier domain; Cirrus HD-OCT, RTVue-100, and Topcon 3D-OCT 1000) devices and 1 time-domain (TD) OCT (Stratus OCT) device.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, noncomparative, noninterventional case series.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-two patients seen at the New England Eye Center, Tufts Medical Center Retina Service, between February and August 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two scans were performed for each of the SD OCT protocols: Cirrus macular cube 512 x 128 (software version 3.0; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA), RTVue (E)MM5 and MM6 (software version 3.5; Optovue, Inc., Fremont, CA), Topcon 3D Macular and Radial (software version 2.12; Topcon, Inc., Paramus, NJ), in addition to 1 TD OCT scan via Stratus macular thickness protocol (software version 4.0; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.). Scans were inspected for 6 types of OCT scan artifacts and were analyzed. Interscan reproducibility and interdevice agreeability were assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman plots, respectively.
  
  
  METHODS
  Optical coherence tomography image artifacts, macular thickness, reproducibility, and agreeability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Time-domain OCT scans contained a significantly higher percentage of clinically significant improper central foveal thickness (IFT) after manual correction (11-mum change or more) compared with SD OCT scans. Cirrus HD-OCT had a significantly lower percentage of clinically significant IFT (11.1%) compared with the other SD OCT devices (Topcon 3D, 20.4%; Topcon Radial, 29.6%; RTVue (E)MM5, 42.6%; RTVue MM6, 24.1%; P = 0.001). All 3 SD OCT devices had central foveal subfield thicknesses that were significantly more than that of TD OCT after manual correction (P<0.0001). All 3 SD OCT devices demonstrated a high degree of reproducibility in the central foveal region (ICCs, 0.92-0.97). Bland-Altman plots showed low agreeability between TD and SD OCT scans.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Out of all OCT devices analyzed, cirrus HD-OCT scans exhibited the lowest occurrence of any artifacts (68.5%), IFT (40.7%), and clinically significant IFT (11.1%), whereas Stratus OCT scans exhibited the highest occurrence of clinically significant IFT. Further work on improving segmentation algorithm to decrease artifacts is warranted.
authors: New England Eye Center, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
authors: Joseph
authors: J
authors: Ho
authors: Alan C
authors: AC
authors: Sull
authors: Laurel N
authors: LN
authors: Vuong
authors: Yueli
authors: Y
authors: Chen
authors: Jonathan
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: James G
authors: JG
authors: Fujimoto
authors: Joel S
authors: JS
authors: Schuman
authors: Jay S
authors: JS
authors: Duker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016477:Artifacts; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology*; D012164:Retinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013997:Time Factors; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence