Purpose To determine the impact of image binarization and the best thresholding method for conjunctival optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Methods Vessel density (VD) of 14 OCTA conjunctival images (nine nasal and five temporal conjunctivas, and eight right and six left eyes) from normal subjects was analyzed. The binarization of gold-standard images, created by removing pixels that do not represent vessels on ImageJ software, was assessed by three masked graders to determine consistency of VD for images. Various thresholding methods on ImageJ, including manual, 1-, 2- and 3-step processes, were performed on unprocessed images for comparison. Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) ≥0.750 were classified as good reliability and selected for calculation of the performance of the pixel location in the binarized images of each method. Results Analysis of the gold-standard threshold method achieved an ICC of 0.816 with excellent agreement ( R 2 = 0.965, P < 0.001). From a total 28 different methods and variations performed, only nine methods performed with good reliability, including two 1-step thresholds, six 2-step thresholds, and one 3-step threshold method. Overall, 2-step threshold methods were more reliable than 3-step threshold methods. The 2-step method of Bandpass filter + Phansalkar local threshold (LT) showed the best performance with mean pixel accuracy of 86.9% ± 6.8%, area under the curve of 0.826, sensitivity of 79.0%, and specificity 86.1%. Conclusions Bandpass filter + Phansalkar LT was the best method for VD measurement in conjunctival OCTA. Most commonly reported threshold methods showed unsatisfactory agreement. There is a need in the OCTA field for a standardized method to allow comparison between different studies. Translational Relevance The proposed threshold method using a widely accessible and commonly used software provides an accurate VD measurement for future OCTA studies.
Background and Objective: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) Analysis Toolkit (OAT), a custom-designed software package, as a repeatable and reproducible tool for computing OCTA metrics across different devices. Materials and Methods: Fourteen participants were imaged using three devices. Foveal avascular zone, vessel index, vessel length index, and vessel diameter index were calculated using the OAT. Repeatability and reproducibility were assessed using the coefficient of variation and interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: Analysis of identical images demonstrated perfect levels of repeatability for all metrics (coefficient of variation 0%), which was a consequence of the software being deterministic (ie, producing the same outputs for the same inputs). Foveal avascular zone ICC values were in the excellent-to-good range (I CC > 0.6) for all devices. All values for vessel index (VI), vessel length index, and vessel diameter index fell in the good-to-fair (I CC > 0.4) or excellent-to-good range, except for vessel index analysis in the Cirrus device (I CC = 0.34). Conclusions: The OAT appears to be a reliable tool that may enable comparison between OCTA data sets acquired on different imaging instruments, thereby facilitating a more consistent approach to OCTA analysis. [ Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina 2023;54:114–122.]
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