Intra- and Intersession Repeatability of an Optical Quality and Intraocular Scattering Measurement System in Children

PURPOSE: To evaluate intra- and intersession repeatability of objective optical quality and intraocular scattering measurements with a double-pass system in children. METHODS: Forty-two eyes of 42 children were included in the study. An optical quality analysis system (OQAS) was used to measure optical quality parameters, including modulation transfer function cutoff frequency (MTF(cutoff)), Strehl ratio (SR), OQAS values (OV) at 3 different contrasts and objective scatter index (OSI). Three measurement sessions with 10-min intervals were operated by the same technician, and in each session four consecutive measurements were obtained. RESULTS: Mean values for MTF(cutoff), SR and OSI were 46.85 ± 7.45cpd, 0.27 ± 0.06 and 0.34 ± 0.22 respectively. 1) The intraclass correlation coefficients were ranged from 0.89 to 0.97 and coefficients of variation from 0.06 to 0.16 for all the parameters in the first session; the relative repeatability were 11.1% (MTF(cutoff)), 22.5% (SR), 10.9% (OV100%), 16.6% (OV2%), 22.4% (OV9%) and 56.3% (OSI). Similar results were found in the second and third sessions. 2) Bland-Altman analysis showed that narrow 95% confidence intervals (compared between the first and second sessions) ranged from -5.42 to 5.28 (MTF(cutoff)), -0.05 to 0.07 (SR), -0.18 to 0.18 (OV100%), -0.26 to 0.29 (OV20%), -0.33 to 0.39 (OV9%) and -0.11 to 0.09 (OSI); the comparison between any two of the three sessions showed similar results. CONCLUSION: Measurements of optical quality and intraocular scattering in children by the double-pass system showed good intra- and intersession repeatability. Retinal image quality is high and intraocular scattering is low in children.