Effects of enhanced depth imaging and en face averaging on optical coherence tomography angiography image quantification.

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of enhanced depth imaging (EDI) and en face averaging on global vascular measurements of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images.

METHODS

All eyes were imaged with 3 mm × 3 mm fields centered at the fovea using the Carl Zeiss Cirrus 5000 spectral-domain OCTA, with and without EDI, and the Zeiss PLEX Elite 9000 swept-source OCTA. Vessel area density (VAD), vessel length (VL), and vessel diameter index (VDI) were calculated for the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) en face angiograms. For the choriocapillaris (CC), VAD and the number, total area, and average size of flow voids were calculated. These metrics were compared between SD- and SS-OCTA images, with and without en face averaging and EDI.

RESULTS

Both averaging and EDI had a significant effect on quantitative metrics. EDI images trended toward a decrease in SCP VAD. In the CC, EDI decreased average flow void size. Averaging increased CC VAD while decreasing number of flow voids, total flow void area, and average flow void size. With both averaging and EDI, SD-OCTA was not able to visualize as many CC flow voids, particularly of a smaller size, compared with SS-OCTA.

CONCLUSIONS

Averaging and EDI affect quantitative metrics from SCP and CC OCTA images. EDI resulted in a trend toward decreased VAD in SCP images. Averaging had a major effect on CC imaging. Even with the combination of EDI and en face averaging, SD-OCTA images do not appear to approximate SS-OCTA images in terms of quantitative metrics. This has implications for clinical and research use of SD-OCTA for retinal imaging.