title: Polarisation-sensitive OCT is useful for evaluating retinal pigment epithelial lesions in patients with neovascular AMD.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the reproducibility of lesion dimensions of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT), specifically imaging the RPE.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-six patients (28 eyes) with neovascular AMD were included in this study, and examined by a PS-OCT prototype. Each patient was scanned five times at a 1-day visit. The PS-OCT B-scan located closest to the macular centre presenting with RPE atrophy was identified, and the longitudinal diameter of the lesion was quantified manually using AutoCAD 2008. This procedure was followed for the identical B-scan position in all five scans per eye and patient. Reproducibility of qualitative changes in PS-OCT was evaluated. Interobserver variability was assessed. Results were compared with intensity-based spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) imaging.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean variability of all atrophy lesion dimensions was 0.10 mm (SD±=0.06 mm). Coefficient of variation (SD±/mean) was 0.06 on average (SD±=0.03). Interobserver variability assessment showed a mean difference of 0.02 mm across all patients regarding RPE lesion size evaluation (paired t test: p=0.38). Spearman correlation coefficient was r=0.98, p<0.001. Results revealed a good overall reproducibility of ∼90%. PS-OCT specifically detected the RPE in all eyes compared with conventional intensity-based SD-OCT that was not capable to clearly identify RPE atrophy in 25 eyes (89.3%, p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PS-OCT offers good reproducibility of RPE atrophy assessment in neovascular AMD, and may be suitable for precise RPE evaluation in clinical practice. PS-OCT unambiguously identifies RPE changes in choroidal neovascularisation compared with intensity-based SD-OCT that does not identify the RPE status reliably.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schütze
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Teleky
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pircher
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Götzinger
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Hitzenberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schmidt-Erfurth
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001284:Atrophy; D020256:Choroidal Neovascularization / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055213:Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Q000473:pathology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D057135:Wet Macular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis*
keywords: Degeneration; Imaging; Macula; Neovascularisation; Retina