Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness Measurement Comparison Using Spectral Domain and Swept Source Optical Coherence Tomography.

PURPOSE: To investigate the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness concordance when measured by spectral domain (SD) and swept source (SS) optical coherence tomography (OCT), and to compare glaucoma-discriminating capability.

METHODS

RNFL thicknesses were measured with the scan circle, centered on the optic nerve head, in 55 healthy, 41 glaucoma suspected, and 87 glaucomatous eyes. The RNFL thickness measured by the SD-OCT (sdRNFL thickness) and SS-OCT (ssRNFL thickness) were compared using the t-test. Bland-Altman analysis was performed to examine their agreement. We compared areas under the receiver operating characteristics curve and examined sdRNFL and ssRNFL thickness for discriminating glaucomatous eyes from healthy eyes, and from glaucoma suspect eyes.

RESULTS

The average ssRNFL thickness was significantly greater than sdRNFL thickness in healthy (110.0 ± 7.9 vs. 100.1 ± 6.8 µm, p < 0.001), glaucoma suspect (96.8 ± 9.3 vs. 89.6 ± 7.9 µm, p < 0.001), and glaucomatous eyes (74.3 ± 14.2 vs. 69.1 ± 12.4 µm, p = 0.011). Bland-Altman analysis showed that there was a tendency for the difference between ssRNFL and sdRNFL to increase in eyes with thicker RNFL. The area under the curves of the average sdRNFL and ssRNFL thickness for discriminating glaucomatous eyes from healthy eyes (0.984 vs. 0.986, p = 0.491) and glaucoma suspect eyes (0.936 vs. 0.918, p = 0.132) were comparable.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a tendency for ssRNFL thickness to increase, compared with sdRNFL thickness, in eyes with thicker RNFL. The ssRNFL thickness had comparable diagnostic capability compared with sdRNFL thickness for discriminating glaucomatous eyes from healthy eyes and glaucoma suspect eyes.