title: Intrasession and Between-Visit Variability of Sector Peripapillary Angioflow Vessel Density Values Measured with the Angiovue Optical Coherence Tomograph in Different Retinal Layers in Ocular Hypertension and Glaucoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate intrasession and between-visit reproducibility of sector peripapillary angioflow vessel-density (PAFD, %) values in the optic nerve head (ONH) and radial peripapillary capillaries (RPC) layers, respectively, and to analyze the influence of the corresponding sector retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT) on the results.
  
  
  METHODS
  High quality images acquired with the Angiovue/RTVue-XR Avanti optical coherence tomograph (Optovue Inc., Fremont, USA) on 1 eye of 18 stable glaucoma and ocular hypertension patients were analyzed using the Optovue 2015.100.0.33 software version. Three images were acquired in one visit and 1 image 3 months later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PAFD image quality for all images necessary to calculate reproducibility was sufficient to analysis only in 18 of the 83 participants (21.7%) who were successfully imaged for RNFLT. Intrasession coefficient of variation (CV) ranged between 2.30 and 3.89%, and 3.51 and 5.12% for the peripapillary sectors in the ONH and RPC layers, respectively. The corresponding between-visit CV values ranged between 3.05 and 4.26%, and 4.99 and 6.90%, respectively. Intrasession SD did not correlate with the corresponding RNFLT in any sector in either layer (P≥0.170). In the ONH layer sector PAFD values did not correlate with the corresponding RNFLT values (P≥0.100). In contrast, in the RPC layer a significant positive correlation between the corresponding sector PAFD and RNFLT values was found for all but one peripapillary sectors (Pearson-r range: 0.652 to 0.771, P≤0.0046).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Though in several patients routine use of PAFD measurement may be limited by suboptimal image quality, in the successfully imaged cases (21.7% of the study eyes in the current investigation) reproducibility of sector PAFD values seems to be sufficient for clinical research. In stable patients intrasession variability explains most of the between-visit variability. Sector PAFD variability is independent from sector RNFLT, a marker of glaucoma severity. In the RPC layer sector PAFD and RNFLT show strong to very strong positive correlation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Holló
mesh_terms: D005901:Glaucoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009798:Ocular Hypertension / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012160:Retina / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012171:Retinal Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence