Comparison of a novel confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy algorithm with optical coherence tomography in measurement of macular thickness and volume.

Abstract

To evaluate macular thickness and volume measurements using a novel Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph (HRT3) algorithm and to compare the results with optical coherence tomography (StratusOCT). This was a prospective, comparative, clinical noninterventional study. Fifty-two eyes were examined using both methods: 16 normal eyes, 12 eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME), and 24 eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The HRT3 macular thickness and volume were compared with those from the StratusOCT automated software. In addition, the distances between the retinal surface and the base of subretinal pathologic changes were measured using the StratusOCT manual-caliper technique and were compared with the HRT3 measurements in AMD eyes. No statistically significant difference in macular thickness and volume measurements was observed between the two methods for normal (P = 0.89 and P = 0.33, respectively) and DME eyes (P = 0.86 and P = 0.31, respectively). However, in AMD eyes, the differences in both measurements were statistically significant between the two methods (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001, respectively). The HRT3 thickness measurements were in good agreement with the manual StratusOCT measurements (P = 0.4). In normal and DME eyes, the HRT3 measurements correlated well with the automatic StratusOCT measurements. In AMD eyes, the HRT3 measurements correlated well only with the manually corrected measurements of the retinal-subretinal pathologic changes.