Comparison of Drusen Area Detected by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography and Color Fundus Imaging

Abstract

Citation: Yehoshua Z, Gregori G, Sadda SR, et al. Comparison of drusen area detected by spectral domain optical coherence tomography and color fundus imaging. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013;54;4:24294: -24344: . DOI:10.1167 PURPOSE. To compare the measurements of drusen area from manual segmentation of color fundus photographs with those generated by an automated algorithm designed to detect elevations of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images. METHODS.Fifty eyes with drusen secondary to nonexudative age-related macular degeneration were enrolled. All eyes were imaged with a high-definition OCT instrument using a 200 3 200 A-scan raster pattern covering a 6 mm 3 6 mm area centered on the fovea. Digital color fundus images were taken on the same day. Drusen were traced manually on the fundus photos by graders at the Doheny Image Reading Center, whereas quantitative OCT measurements of drusen were obtained by using a fully automated algorithm. The color fundus images were registered to the OCT data set and measurements within corresponding 3-and 5-mm circles centered at the fovea were compared. . The mean differences between color images and the SD-OCT (color À SD-OCT) were 0.36 (60.93) (P ¼ 0.008) for the 3-mm circle and 1.26 (61.38) (P < 0.001) for the 5-mm circle measurements. Intraclass correlation coefficients of agreements for 3-and 5-mm measurements were 0.599 and 0.540, respectively. RESULTS. The mean areas (6SD [rangeCONCLUSIONS. There was only fair agreement between drusen area measurements obtained from SD-OCT images and color fundus photos. Drusen area measurements on color fundus images were larger than those with SD-OCT scans. This difference can be attributed to the fact that the OCT algorithm defines drusen in terms of RPE deformations above a certain threshold, and will not include small, flat drusen and subretinal drusenoid deposits. The two approaches provide complementary information about drusen.

Longitudinal Associations Between Microstructural Changes and Microperimetry in the Early Stages of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

“…15 It is also recognized that subtle changes in microstructural features occur in the early stages of AMD, despite not easily appreciated on clinical examination or on CFPs. 16,17 Such changes can be visualized and quantified on high-resolution imaging modalities such as SD-OCT, including changes to the extent and morphology of drusen, 4,8,9,[18][19][20][21] pigmentary abnoriovs.arvojournals.org j ISSN: 1552-5783 malities, 6 atrophic changes (including nascent GA [nGA] 7,22 and drusen-associated atrophy) and the integrity of the photoreceptor inner-segment ellipsoid (ISe) band. 19 Previous studies have also observed that changes in some of these microstructural features are strongly associated with changes in mesopic microperimetric sensitivity, although it is not possible to conclude whether any of these parameters represent the underlying pathologic changes that are contributing to the decreased visual sensitivity.…”

Change in Drusen Area Over Time Compared Using Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography and Color Fundus Imaging

“…26 Relationships between drusen as defined as yellowish pigmentary changes on color fundus photography and drusen as defined as RPE deformations have been investigated. [27][28][29][30] Good overall correlation between measurements of drusen area using SDOCT important differences between what is captured by the two technologies. Differences in the pointwise agreement between the segmented drusen areas on SDOCT and CFIs are due to the intrinsic differences in how drusen are defined by the two imaging strategies.…”

In-vivo mapping of drusen by fundus autofluorescence and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography imaging

“…Several authors have specifically investigated SD-OCT characteristics at the site of visible drusen, including soft drusen by CFP [14,15,[17][18][19][27][28][29]. Khanifar et al demonstrated the existence of a wide variation in drusen morphology by SD-OCT, and differentiated 17 unique drusen patterns.…”