The Specificity Rates of Clarus 500™ Ultra-Wide-Field Retinal Imaging for Detecting Peripheral Retinal Lesions in Medium-to-High Myopia Eyes.

INTRODUCTION

The aim of the study was to investigate the specificity of Clarus 500™, an ultra-wide-field (UWF) fundus camera, for detecting peripheral retinal lesions in myopic eyes.

METHODS

This diagnostic test included 436 eyes from 221 patients with myopia before refractive surgery. The mean age was 28.9 ± 6.0 years (18 to 49 years), with the average spherical equivalent refraction being -8.33 ± 2.81 diopters (D) (-20.63 D to -0.50 D). Images were captured using Clarus 500™ from the posterior pole and four UWF directions, including the superior temporal, superior nasal, inferior temporal, and inferior nasal gaze. A slit-lamp non-contact +120 D lens was used as the control. Sensitivity and specificity in detecting fundus lesions were compared between the images obtained by Clarus 500™ and slit-lamp examination. Statistical analysis was performed using version 4.3.0 of R software, and significance was set at p < 0.05.

RESULTS

Of the 436 eyes, 13 (2.98%) underwent slit-lamp examination, and 5 (1.15%) underwent Clarus 500™ examination, revealing retinal lesions. The sensitivity of Clarus 500™ for detecting peripheral retinal holes/tears was 50% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.26%, 98.74%). The specificity for peripheral lattice degeneration was 99.77% (95% CI: 98.70%, 99.99%). The agreement between the two methods for detecting peripheral reticular degeneration and retinal holes was moderate (kappa value: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.10-0.75, p < 0.01) and substantial (kappa value: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.05-1, p < 0.01), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Clarus 500™ showed high specificity for detecting peripheral retinal holes and substantial agreement with the slit-lamp in identifying peripheral retinal degeneration and retinal holes.