Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

8-2014

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group

Source Publication

British Journal of Ophthalmology

Source ISSN

0007-1161

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-304823

Abstract

Background Adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) enables direct visualisation of the cone mosaic, with metrics such as cone density and cell spacing used to assess the integrity or health of the mosaic. Here we examined the interobserver and inter-instrument reliability of cone density measurements.

Methods For the interobserver reliability study, 30 subjects with no vision-limiting pathology were imaged. Three image sequences were acquired at a single parafoveal location and aligned to ensure that the three images were from the same retinal location. Ten observers used a semiautomated algorithm to identify the cones in each image, and this was repeated three times for each image. To assess inter-instrument reliability, 20 subjects were imaged at eight parafoveal locations on one AOSLO, followed by the same set of locations on the second AOSLO. A single observer manually aligned the pairs of images and used the semiautomated algorithm to identify the cones in each image.

Results Based on a factorial study design model and a variance components model, the interobserver study's largest contribution to variability was the subject (95.72%) while the observer's contribution was only 1.03%. For the inter-instrument study, an average cone density intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of between 0.931 and 0.975 was calculated.

Conclusions With the AOSLOs used here, reliable cone density measurements can be obtained between observers and between instruments. Additional work is needed to determine how these results vary with differences in image quality.

Comments

Published version. British Journal of Ophthalmology, Vol. 98, No. 8 (August 2014): 1126-1131. DOI. © 2014 BMJ Publishing Group.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

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